Man jailed for running drug factory

AN Oldham man has been jailed for five years after admitting running a drugs factory from an Ashton house.

Mridyul Kanti Das (31), of Huddersfield Road, pleaded guilty at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court to the attempted manufacture of LSD.

The sentence will run consecutively to a previous conviction for producing vodka illegally and possession of firearms.

Das was sentenced to nine years and four months at Liverpool Crown Court in May, 2007, after the illegal distillery and a firearm were discovered at an industrial unit in Manchester Road, Oldham. in 2005, with another weapon found at his home.

Das had previously worked in pharmaceuticals, until he was dismissed from his job in the summer of 2006.

In November, 2006, Greater Manchester Police’s Serious Crime Division received intelligence that Das was buying chemicals from a company in St Helens that, when mixed with other chemicals, could be used to manufacture LSD.

Das had been using false letterhead paper, purporting to be from a Rochdale fuel company, to order the chemicals.

Two shipments of the chemicals were delivered to his house and officers watched him take them to a house in Anglesey Road, Ashton.

Officers raided the addresses and arrested Das.

In Ashton, they found a tabletop laboratory in the cellar, including scales, flasks, buckets and pipes, as well as residue chemicals and a recipe to produce LSD.

Det Insp John Ogdon, from GMP’s drugs unit, said: “The chemicals that Das was using in his ‘factory’ could potentially have been extremely dangerous if not handled properly.
“As soon as we became aware of the possibility that they were being stored with the intention of creating drugs, we had to act swiftly for the protection of the local community.

“Das was using his knowledge from the chemical industry to create illegal, dangerous substances. Not only in the production of illegal drugs, but also fraudulently producing vodka.”