PHARMA LABS AT EASE ON TENANTS

Peddlers take pharma labs easily on rent as owners do not commission checks on their backgrounds Once they get a foothold, peddlers use private pharma facilties to produce narcotic drugs safely

The owners of pharma labs established on the city outskirts don’t really bother about background checks of their tenants. This encourages drug cartels to secretly use their facilities to produce narcotic drugs.

Despite the ongoing crackdowns on drug peddlers, there is little awareness amongst owners of such labs. This makes Hyderabad a safe haven for drug peddlers who can easily take these labs on rent, use their equipment and other facilities and manufacture drugs, undisturbed.

In 80 per cent of the cases busted by Special Operation Team and NCB, the racketeers had rented drug-making machinery. After a police bust-up, while the drug peddlers are arrested and face severe charges, the pharma lab owners usually face minor charges like negligence.

According to Cyberabad SOT officials, there are dozens of labs active on the outskirts of the city, where large quantities of narcotic drug production take place. Most of these labs are small companies that have licenses for producing legal drugs. But they rent out their labs knowingly or unknowingly to the drug peddlers for huge amounts of money.

The poor vigilance of the Drugs Control Administration has encouraged all kinds of malpractices in the city.

“The standard operating procedure should be that the officers inspect each suspicious seeming lab at regular intervals and test each product to ensure no narcotics are produced. But, such inspections are extremely rare leaving the owners with the belief they will not be caught even if they rent out their properties for illegal activities”, said an expert.

Meanwhile, the department officials say that due to staff crunch it is not possible for them to carry out regular checks. Often, city police do the job of Drug Control Administration by raiding such places and arresting racketeers.

“What we found was that these small labs would rent their places to drug racketeers for a brief period of time in return for a huge amount of money. Though most of the owners are pharma specialists as that is the reason they have got the license, they do not check what is being produced. Or just turn a blind eye. The racketeers might say they want to produce some legal drugs, but they may be actually producing methamphetamine or some other banned drugs”, said a senior police official from SOT.

The owner of the lab is always arrested whenever a lab is busted. But since there are dozens of labs active, it’s not difficult for drug racketeers to find another one where they can continue with their business.