By Farzana Chaudhry
Lahore, Pakistan

LAHORE: In line with Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s vision of a “Drug-Free Punjab, Healthy and Safe Punjab,” the Punjab Counter Narcotics Force (CNF) has busted a clandestine factory allegedly involved in manufacturing ecstasy and party pills in the Begum Kot area of Lahore.

A joint team of the Lahore and Kasur units of the Punjab Counter Narcotics Force conducted an intelligence-based operation and recovered 12,000 ready-made party pills (ecstasy tablets) from the factory, with an estimated value of Rs36 million.

The operation also resulted in the recovery of 25 grams of ice and 40 kilograms of precursor raw material allegedly used in the manufacture of ecstasy tablets. The estimated value of the precursor material was put at Rs200 million.

According to a Punjab Counter Narcotics Force spokesperson, the recovered precursor material could potentially have been used to manufacture an additional 100,000 ecstasy tablets.

The CNF team also seized machinery allegedly used in the manufacturing process, including a tablet-making machine, mixing machine, washing machine and 10 other machines.

Other items recovered from the premises included potency-enhancing creams allegedly used to increase the effects of narcotic pills.

The Punjab Counter Narcotics Force has taken the factory into custody and launched a further investigation to identify and apprehend other individuals allegedly involved in the manufacturing, supply and distribution of narcotics.

The force said intelligence-based operations would continue across Punjab as part of efforts to dismantle drug manufacturing and trafficking networks and make the province safer and drug-free.