Arrested Chinese may have made drugs in Bengal factory: CID

KOLKATA/BERHAMPORE: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal was surprised to find 1.9kg of amphetamine tablets — a banned party drug — in a closed factory in the district of Murshidabad on July 4 , four days after five Chinese nationals were arrested from Kolkata with almost 200kg of the same narcotic.

As much as 197kg of amphetamine tablets with a street value of nearly ~40 crore were seized from five Chinese nationals arrested around midnight on June 29 from a railway station in Kolkata.

On July 4, a CID team raided the factory from where they had seized another 1.9kg of amphetamine tablets, which are widely used as a party drug in South East Asia.

Officials are also looking into whether the 197kg of the tablets were made at the Nawada fac- tory and shifted before the factory was closed a year ago since it didn’t have a certificate from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.

The factory is located on 15 bigha (2.61 lakh sq ft) land . It was leased out about four years ago by its owner Boju Sheikh, a member of the Madhupur gram panchayat member.

“...different Chinese medicines, one syringe pump, one grinding machine” were also found during the raid, according to a CID statement.

“Information reveals these Chinese used to stay/visit off and on there.”

Those arrested at the Kolkata station were identified as Wang Xiao Dong, Xue Yonghui, Li Cheng, Cheng Hao, and Liu Baoxian — all aged between 30 and 37 years.

“While Dong could speak English to an extent, the rest can only speak some Chinese provincial language,” CID officers said.