NCB yet to nab Vadodara's Illicit drug lab owner

Vadodara, Nov 26 (UNI) Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have intensified their search for a city-based businessman Kirit Shah, owner of Savli's Sakha Organics Private Limited (SOPL), where a clandestine Methamphetamine laboratory was busted recently.

Shah and his business partner Jagdish Vaidya have gone underground after a joint team of NCB officers from Mumbai and Ahmedabad seized nearly 30 kg of Methamphetamine worth Rs 12 crore from the laboratory of the chemical factory following a raid on November 21.

The absconders, both residents of the city, are suspected to be actively involved in this international drug trafficking racket in which three foreigners, including prime accused Xie Jing Feng alias Richard, a Canadian national of chinese origin, have been arrested.

Acting on an intelligence report, NCB busted the racket when its sleuths intercepted a Mumbai-bound Innova car on the Vadodara-Mumbai highway in the wee hours of November 21 and arrested Feng along with his two Malaysian associates--Ravindran Karpaya and Gunashekharan Pillay following recovery of 1.50 kg of Methamphetamine, a highly psychotropic substance from their possession.

Claiming that it was the first case on the part of NCB to unearth a full-fledged clandestine contraband manufacturing laboratory, NCB sources said a manhunt had been launched to track down the factory owner Kirit Shah and his partner.

Besides issuing summons against the duo, the department had reportedly seized several incriminating documents during search of their office and residential premises in the city.

The investigation and interrogation of the racket's kingpin Feng, who has been remanded to NCB custody for five days, revealed that he visited India 23 times since December, 2007 when the illicit lab was established in the chemical factory, located at Mokshi in Savli taluka of the district.

The gang was reportedly exporting Methamphetamine drug, popularly known as 'ice' in the illicit drug market, to several countries in the world. Following arrest of the three foreigners, NCB authorities were in touch with their counterparts in China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and several other countries to unearth their international network, the sources said.

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