NCB pulls a 'Breaking Bad' with biggest-ever seizure

In what is likely to be a scene one would see in the popular TV show 'Breaking Bad', the Narcotics Control Bureau on Thursday seized over 1,800 kilos of pseudoephedrine in Greater Noida and arrested one South African and two Nigerian nationals in connection with the seizure.

A report on the Hindustan Times says that the total value of the drugs is estimated to be over Rs 1,000 crores, making it the biggest raid in the country so far.

NCB zonal director Madhav Singh said that not only is the raid the country's biggest ever, but also the world's biggest pseudoephedrine raid. Pseudoephedrine is a class of drug with low dependency liability and is used as a eugeroic, but is also used to manufacture methamphetamine, commonly called crystal meth. Exporting pseudoephedrine requires a licence from the narcotics commissioner.

NCB officials said they were following a tipoff, which led the Central Industrial Security Force to intercept a 31-year-old woman passenger, Nomsa Lutalo, from South Africa, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport. She was carrying 24.7 kilos of pseudoephedrine.

Pseudoephedrine is one of the drugs that is listed in the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988.