With the arrest in New Delhi of a Myanmarese national and four others, Punjab Police claimed  on Thursday to have busted a gang operating an international synthetic drugs racket.

Synthetic drugs, mostly ice (methamphetamine) and precursor chemicals estimated at Rs.200 crore in the international market, were recovered from the gang.

Punjab Police Additional Director General (Law and Order) Dinkar Gupta said the arrests of the five people, based in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, were part of a major breakthrough in the drugs racket.

The Myanmarese national was identified as Hrang Tin Khara, who was based in New Delhi and travelled to Mizoram and Myanmar frequently. He also used two fake names - Adam Zanniat and Robert, police said.

The others arrested were Suresh Kumar, manager of a Himachal Pradesh-based pharmaceutical factory, Varinder Singh, whose family is based in Yangon, Delhi-based factory owner Rajesh Kumar Bansal and chemicals supplier Ajay Jain.

The arrests were made during the past one week. The international drugs racket was exposed close on the heels of neutralising of a Delhi-based ring controlled by kingpin Dev Behl.

"This important and major breakthrough in the drive against drug trafficking follows systematic and meticulous investigations by Punjab Police with the objective of exposure of drug networks in a complete manner from source of supply to the distribution network," Gupta said here.

The investigation into the racket revealed a new trafficking route used for sending synthetic drugs to North America through Myanmar and China, utilising the Golden Triangle (Myanmar-Laos-Thailand) route.

So far, over 100 smugglers have been interrogated, police said. The focus of the police operation was not limited to Punjab only. Networks operating in other parts of the country are also being detected and action being taken. This racket was the second successive Delhi-based synthetic drugs racket busted in a short time by Punjab Police, Gupta said.

In less than two months, Punjab Police have recovered synthetic drugs estimated at nearly Rs.2,500 crore.