New Delhi, Dec 24 (PTI) The NCB Tuesday said it has busted a "clandestine" recreational drug manufacturing lab in Telangana and arrested an organic chemistry postgraduate, working in a pharma company, who allegedly ran the facility.

The lab was unearthed Monday in the Gummadidala industrial area of Sangareddy district, about 50 km from Hyderabad, the federal anti-narcotics agency said in a statement.

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A total of 32.5 kg of alprazolam valued at about Rs 6.5 crore (street price) was seized from the laboratory, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said.

Alprazolam is a prescription drug, often misused as a recreational narcotics and also for mixing with toddy.

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A "highly qualified professional" with a postgraduate degree in organic chemistry and working in the research and development department of an "established" pharmaceutical company has been arrested, it said.

The man had hired the premises of a pharmaceutical company to run the "illegal" manufacturing facility. Investigation is in progress to disrupt the entire ecosystem involved in drug trafficking, the NCB said.

The agency said the operation was a result of three months of "intensive" efforts to identify the source of alprazolam that began with the seizure of 6kg of the drug by the NCB.

The seizure was made in September at the Shadnagar Toll Plaza on the outskirts of Hyderabad with the arrest of an 85-year-old person.

The NCB said this was the eighth bust this year of a clandestine drugs-making lab in the country. It had earlier unearthed similar facilities in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh).

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