Sharma after the arrest. (AFP)

New Delhi, Aug. 28: The capital is becoming a crucible of party drugs.

Delhi police last night seized 4,400 kg of drugs worth as much as Rs 200 crore in the international market from a godown at Badarpur in south Delhi.

The narcotic has been identified as methaqualone, also dubbed disco biscuit, lemon, lovers and love drug on the party circuit. The banned drug is known to be used in date rapes.

Methaqualone, discovered by Indian scientist M.L. Gujral in 1955 during anti-malaria research, is banned in most developed countries, including the US and Britain.

Considered the biggest such haul in Delhi, the seizure follows close on the heels of last Sunday’s catch of narcotics worth Rs 100 crore in the capital.

A suspect, 38-year-old Vinod Sharma, was arrested at 8.30 pm yesterday with around 4 kg of methaqualone.

“Sharma led us to the godown where we discovered unprecedented amounts of the banned narcotic,” said Anil Shukla, the deputy commissioner of police (south Delhi).

On July 3, the police had arrested the suspect’s brother Chaturvedi, along with five other associates, for alleged pilferage from containers bound from export units at Panipat to the Inland Container Depot.

A tip-off from one of them led to yesterday’s arrest.

Having discovered over Rs 300 crore worth banned narcotics in just over a week, the police are now accepting the fact that the capital has become more than just an international transit point for banned substances.

“We earlier believed Delhi was just a route for the transfer of drugs between neighbouring countries. Now our perception is changing,” said a senior official at the Narcotics Control Bureau.

Delhi, the official said, is now increasingly being recognised as the nerve centre in the country for distribution of illicit drugs.

“In other words, now there is a large open market for these substances here itself,” he added. Delhi has a large party crowd not averse to popping pills.

Though methaqualone can be produced in India, the police feel that this consignment came from abroad and was on its way to another country, probably the US.