NCB busts meth lab in Greater Noida with links to Mexico drug cartel, 5 held

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Tuesday it has busted a clandestine methamphetamine manufacturing laboratory with links to a major Mexican drug cartel operating out of an industrial area in Greater Noida and arrested five people, including a Mexican national and a Tihar jail warder.
A Mexican national sent by the cartel – Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion – was arrested along with a Mumbai-based chemist, a Tihar jail warder, and two others, said NCB deputy director general (DDG) Gyaneshwar Singh.
The laboratory was being run by Indian nationals out of a building in an industrial area in Gautam Budh Nagar near Delhi.
Officials aware of the probe said the arrested Mexican national was sent to India to set up the factory and ensure the purity of the manufactured drug before exporting it. He had come to India on a tourist visa earlier this year and was living on rent at a housing society in Noida.
“Acting on information that a laboratory was established for the production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine for export to other countries as well as consumption in India, in which members of Mexican CJNG drug cartel (Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion), are also involved, NCB conducted search operation in a factory in Kasana Industrial Area, Gautam Budh Nagar district on October 25, 2024 and found about 95kg of methamphetamine in solid and liquid forms. Chemicals like acetone, sodium hydroxide, methylene chloride, premium grade ethanol, toluene, red phosphorous, ethyl acetate etc and imported machinery for manufacturing was also found,” said NCB DDG Singh.
Read more: Tamil Nadu: Engineering, chemistry students run meth lab from home in Chennai, arrested
NCB said the Delhi Police’s special cell also participated in the operation as the drug network had footprints across several places in Delhi.
The crackdown is the latest in a series of drug busts in the capital and its surrounding areas. Last month, around 1,300kg of cocaine was recovered by Delhi Police’s special cell in a series of raids across NCR and Gujarat as part of a separate crackdown against a drugs syndicate with origins in South America, according to officials.
According to the website of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States, Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion is one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organisations in the world and is responsible for trafficking tonnes of cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl-laced heroin into the US. The cartel’s kingpin, Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, is one of the most wanted men in the US, carrying a reward of $10 million on his arrest.
Singh said that a west Delhi businessman and a Tihar Jail warden were in the factory at the time of the raid. The two, according to the officer, were instrumental in establishing the illegal factory, procuring chemicals required for manufacturing methamphetamine from various sources and importing the machinery.
Singh added that the gang had roped in a Mumbai-based chemist to manufacture drugs. A member of the Mexican cartel living in NCR used to test the quality of drugs.
NCB officials said the inception of the gang happened in Delhi’s Tihar jail sometime around 2019, when the West Delhi businessman was jailed in a drugs smuggling case. The businessman was in Tihar after being arrested by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for ketamine smuggling.
“The warder was already in touch with inmates of different drug cartels lodged behind bars. He needed someone with money to invest in the drug business. Probe so far has revealed that the two decided to join hands and export drugs outside during their stint in Tihar jail. The businessman came out of prison around 2020. We are probing what they did between 2020 and 2024. It appears the laboratory was set up 5-6 months ago. We are probing if they managed to export their product,” an investigating officer said, adding that the warder was posted in Tihar Jail 6.
The federal agency is now probing the gang’s linkages, financial trail and assets generated.
This is the fifth such laboratory busted by NCB this year. Officials believe the drugs mafia had started setting up such clandestine labs to produce synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and mephedrone in industrial areas so that local law enforcement agencies do not get alerted on account of transportation of material and machinery, waste generated from the laboratories and toxic fumes from the chimneys.
Delhi’s Tihar officials said they are yet to be formally informed of the warder’s arrest by NCB.