Brajesh Singh, one of India’s most wanted Mafia dons with a history of extortion, murder and tender fixing cases spread across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat was arrested by the Delhi police and produced in a court here today.
Singh, operating with several alias, had confessed to the police that he had been involved in a dozen murders in UP and had earned Rs 10 crore a year from extortion. But police believe that the amount he would extort runs to over Rs 100 crore per annum.
He is suspected to have links with Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. He used to call the shots in all CPWD contracts in UP and a few other states, said a police officer.SNS

Scarpino, 37, was gunned down Saturday night as he pulled up to a downtown steak house. The Vancouver man, who had been linked to gang activities, was shot dead in an SUV by at least two men. A passenger seated behind Scarpino was also killed. Scarpino's fiancée and another man survived the ambush at what was to have been an engagement celebration. The streets were busy blocks from a Vancouver Canucks hockey game that had let out.Fifteen years after Ricardo Scarpino pulled a gun and killed a man sitting across the table from him at a busy restaurant, it was his turn at the other end of the barrel.
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, meeting reporters at a previously scheduled press conference to unveil plans to cut violent crime by 10 per cent, instead found himself answering questions about the city's latest gang-style hit and residents' fears over the public gunplay.
"People can walk the streets of Vancouver," Chu said yesterday. But he added: "They need to be vigilant and be aware of their surroundings.
"Overall, the majority of the streets are safe."
Scarpino, recently released from jail after two decades of scrapes with the law, shot and killed a 24-year-old man in a Los Angeles restaurant in 1993 but faced only firearms charges because he claimed self-defence.
Vancouver's first homicides of 2008 continue a trend that has plagued the Vancouver area. The toll includes six people found dead last October in a Surrey apartment – including two innocent bystanders – and four men killed in three public shootings in one week.
Area police forces and the RCMP formed a task force last fall to try to stop the gang-related bloodshed.
Chu said he wants to stop criminals from carrying guns but stopped short of a calling for a city-wide handgun ban, a move Toronto Mayor David Miller is advocating for his city.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, however, said he would support such a ban. "The fact is criminals are still going to do what they can to get illegal guns," Sullivan said.

Donald "Pato" Schubert was shot to death in the carport of his apartment building in the San Gabriel Valley city of Rosemead.
A member of the Lomas Rosemead street gang pleaded guilty to killing Schubert, a plumber and former gang member.
With that, the case was filed away, forgotten by nearly everyone except Schubert's family.
Then, earlier this month, the case suddenly returned to life. At a hearing in Pasadena Superior Court guarded by a dozen deputies, including two SWAT officers, a judge ordered , 46, a reputed member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, to stand trial for Schubert's killing.
Martinez has sat in a "maximum-security cell" at Pelican Bay State Prison for nearly 15 years.
But law enforcement officers and gang members say he controls the Lomas Rosemead street gang, ordering members to funnel him taxes collected from local drug dealers and directing killings, often by using notes with micro-writing -- known as kites -- smuggled out of the cellblock.
If proved, the case against him would support a belief widely held by law enforcement officers and gang members that many homicides that appear to be simple street-gang fights are instead contract murders ordered by members of the Mexican Mafia, known as the Eme, Spanish for M.
The case is noteworthy because rarely are Eme members prosecuted for street homicides. Often, any link between a specific killing and the Eme is obscure.
Moreover, once an actual triggerman is prosecuted, investigators often have no time to dig further into why the crime was committed. Even when a detective believes there's something more to a killing, a link is often hard to prove.
The case against Martinez, for example, relies on the words of three convicted murderers, one a former Eme member and another a crack dealer who said he once saw a note from Martinez ordering Schubert's death. No such note is in evidence in the case.
Much of the case hinges on Daniel Ahumada, the crack dealer and Lomas gang member who pleaded guilty to killing Schubert. Recently, Ahumada, serving 15 years to life in prison, has come forward to implicate others, including Martinez.
At the recent hearing, Martinez's lawyer, Michael Belter, said the case constructs only a "very tenuous link" to Martinez by "three men who have every motive in the world" to lie. "We have no physical evidence. We have faded memories," he said.
Through a family member, Martinez declined a request for an interview.
Despite the difficulty of proving a link between street killings and the prison gang, the reality of such ties is taken as true by many law enforcement officials and gang members who say the Eme has gained control over street gangs in the last 15 years.
"Usually when an Eme member has a neighborhood sewn up, there's no gang slaying that's not approved" by him, said a Lomas gang member who said he was Martinez's lieutenant on the streets briefly a few years ago. The man, like several others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the gang.
Gang members do the Eme's bidding out of either fear or adulation for men they've usually never seen and know only as the "big homies," gang members say.
"The gangs don't run the gangs no more," said a Lomas Rosemead gang member who is doing time in state prison. "Everything's getting run from inside here."
Law enforcement officials say that with gang members as its street soldiers, the Mexican Mafia has evolved into a region-wide organized crime syndicate. The Eme collects taxes from drug dealers and sometimes prostitutes and even unlicensed ice cream vendors on the street.
They also say the gang orders murders on the streets and riots in county jails and thus is a force affecting public policy far beyond prison walls.
"The average gang killing is not always a gang killing," said Rene Enriquez, a long-time Eme member who dropped out in 2002 and is in prison in protective custody. The Eme "has this mythical ability to get people to do its bidding."
A veteran homicide detective believes that included the killing of Pato Schubert. Sheriff's Det. Frank Gonzales, a year from retirement now, has delved into unsolved killings in the Lomas Rosemead barrio for 13 years.
Several of the homicides appeared to be simple street-gang killings, he said. "On the surface, they all looked that way," Gonzales said. "Until you had sources, you would think it was a regular gang murder. But fortunately, people opened up."
Gonzales believes Martinez ordered half a dozen murders, though he declines to name them, saying he hopes to have charges filed over the next year.
Schubert's killing is the first to go to court.
Lomas Rosemead is a Mexican American gang dating to the 1950s and based in the poor neighborhood covering the hills above Rosemead, an unincorporated piece of L.A. County territory that had neither sidewalks nor sewers until the 1980s.
The gang and barrio were profiled in Luis Rodriguez's classic 1993 book on Latino street gangs, "Always Running."
Rodriguez, a former Lomas member, described an insular barrio with a gang that warred with other San Gabriel Valley rivals but took orders only from others in the neighborhood. At that time, the idea that anyone would kill a fellow gang member who wasn't a snitch was unthinkable.
At first, as Gonzales investigated shootings in the neighborhood, he got nowhere. Gonzales grew up in a Mexican barrio and knows that kids growing up in such neighborhoods learn early not to talk to police officers. Cultivating sources took years.
"A lot of times it doesn't happen in the first meeting or thesecond, third or fourth meeting. They're going to test your credibility, your word," Gonzales said. "You think 'this interview I'm going to learn a lot,' and you walk away with nothing. But you keep on trying."
Through the years, as Gonzales looked for a friendly face in Lomas, the Eme extended its control over the neighborhood. Loyalty to friends was supplanted by loyalty to the Mexican Mafia. Barrio gang unity dissolved. As years passed, more Lomas gang members died.
"They were killing each other off," said Det. Ruben "B.J." Bejarano, who has worked on the cases with Gonzales in recent years.
People in the neighborhood "didn't know who to trust any more," Gonzales said. "More and more people were being killed from within the gang. As I kept knocking on doors, they were telling me about other unsolved murders" believed connected to Martinez.
The detective now believes that on Martinez's orders, Lomas Rosemead gang members began turning on homeboys who were lifelong friends.
"I believe they weren't doing the work he wanted done," Gonzales said.
The killings, say the detectives and several current and former gang members, may also have stemmed from Martinez's desire to punish people he believed responsible for the murders during the 1990s of his brothers, Avelardo and Genaro.
"It was common knowledge among a lot of members that he wanted people responsible for killing his brother [Avelardo] to be killed," said Enriquez, the former Eme member.
"He wanted other people to do it for him."
"It's saving face. He cannot let anybody kill his family member and get away with it," said another long-time gang member and Eme associate. "He was very hard line."
Gonzales believes Schubert may have given a ride to a man who helped kill Martinez's brother, Avelardo, without knowing the killing had just taken place.
Martinez was due to be paroled from prison in September, after serving 14 years for robbery. Hours before the parole, Gonzales faxed to prison authorities the case charging him with Schubert's death.

Polish border police arrested eight people involved in the smuggling and manufacture of pirate CDs and DVDs in a raid carried out on 16th January. Officers also seized illegal firearms, including handguns, a machine gun and a sawn-off shotgun; contraband cigarettes and tobacco; as well as € 50,000 in cash.

The border police from the region of Klodzko smashed the organised gang who both smuggled music and films believed to be produced in Russia and Ukraine as well as producing their own counterfeit discs. The pirate CDs and DVDs were destined for the German market.
During the raid some 66,000 CDs, DVDs, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs and 108,000 inlay cards were seized along with counterfeit inlays and packaging. The discs contained a mixture of German and international repertoire. Officers secured the secret laboratory used for the illegal reproduction of discs which contained computers, two tower burners and two high-quality printers.
Four of the eight suspects arrested, including the one German citizen, were remanded in custody for three months. The other four suspects were released. The investigation continues.
The case highlights the value of a partnership approach between the public and private sector and the close and professional working relationship of the ZPAV, which represents the Polish recording industry, and IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide. A representative of FOTA, which represents the film industry in Poland, was also present during the raid to determine the legitimacy of the seized discs.
Len Hynds, Head of Enforcement at IFPI, says: “These raids clearly show that music and film piracy in Poland is tightly controlled by organised criminal gangs with an international reach. The Polish border police have done a fantastic job in breaking up this gang, but we are aware that there are others out there that we need to tackle.
“It is also self-evident that these gangs do not limit their activities to music and film. Evidence gathered suggests links to tobacco and illegal drug smuggling as well as people trafficking. It is to be hoped that when the case comes to court the authorities issue deterrent sentences to help tackle this ongoing problem.”

Police believe Allan Foster flew from his Spanish hideaway to assassinate David ‘Noddy’ Rice in South Shields in May 2006 with a silenced semi-automatic gun.
It is thought he flew back out of the country the day after the killing, at a seaside car park near Marsden Grotto, and has remained a fugitive since.

Mr Rice, who had been known to police, was sitting in his car in Marsden Grotto, South Shields, at around 4pm on Wednesday, May 24, when the gunmen opened fire.
The 42-year-old, of St Vincent Street, South Shields, crawled out before being shot again in the head as he lay on the concrete. devastated family said: "Nod had many aspects to his make up, most of which were positive.

"Not only was Nod a devoted and loving father to his seven children, he was also in regular contact with the rest of his family who he dearly loved and was loved by in return.
"Until recently in fact Nod was the father of five children, all boys, so when his fiance gave birth to twins, one of whom was a girl, it appeared his life was almost complete.
"Regardless of the circumstances surrounding his death, Nod didn't deserve to die in such a brutal and violent manner."
David ‘Noddy’ Rice gangland killing on Tyneside Allan Foster two years ago has been named among 10 suspected criminals hiding in the “Costa del Crime”.
Yesterday Foster, 31, was named among 10 suspects who will be posted by Crimestoppers on a most-wanted website targeting the Costa del Sol.
The 10 include other men wanted for murder, serious violent offences, robbery and for their roles in multi-million pound drug trafficking rings.
The Spanish coastal resorts have been dubbed the Costa del Crime since the 1970s because hundreds of wanted British criminals are thought to have fled there.

No arrests have been made, and the only solid lead disclosed by police involves two black men seen fleeing the scene in a small silver car.
The pair is thought to have either witnessed the shooting or to have been the intended targets.
At the time, 6:30 p.m., the street was packed with shoppers and homeward-bound residents, several of whom gave statements to police.
But after the first day of the investigation the flow of information swiftly dried up, much to the homicide squad's dismay.
Now witnesses appear to be responding to a fresh appeal for assistance. Along with at least two anonymous Crime Stoppers tips, four people stepped forward yesterday and will be interviewed, Det. Gray said.
Hours of closed-circuit surveillance tape are also being scrutinized.
Tomorrow evening on Gerrard Street, meanwhile, at the exact time and place of Mr. Mao's death, a Chinese-language flyer will be handed out seeking further help.
Later in the evening, Mr. Mao's family will hold a ritual at the site of his death, stemming from the belief that a soul taken by such violence could remain in a sort of limbo.
At around 9 p.m., a monk will bring to the crime scene a piece of Mr. Mao's clothing that will be used to summon his soul to the Wing Sung Funeral Chapel on Spadina Avenue, where his body has been laid out in preparation for his funeral Friday.
A recent arrival to Canada and the father of two young adults, Mr. Mao was standing on the street stacking oranges when he was killed.
His death struck a public nerve, marking the second gun killing of a bystander in Toronto in under a week: A shooting on Yonge Street in the early morning of Jan. 12 claimed the life of 42-year-old John O'Keefe as he was walking home.
Det. Gray said she remained hopeful the killing will be solved but refused to speculate on what sparked the gunplay.
"It doesn't matter to me frankly, I can't imagine what motivation there might be," she said.
"There was some kind of argument between two groups, but I refuse to speak to motive because then it becomes like an excuse - and there's no excuse, right?"
Yesterday Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair moved to assuage public anxiety over the two deaths during questioning by the Police Services Board.
"It's important to keep these things in perspective," he said.
"There were three such events in all of 2007. So far this year there are two. It is not indicative of a trend. It is worrisome ... but I don't think it is proof that the city is unsafe."
Chief Blair said the federal government does not support his call for a firearms ban in Ontario, but that proposed federal legislation to introduce new offences, increase mandatory minimum sentences and reform bail conditions for gun offenders has "great promise."
He said that while police have made great strides in dismantling gangs and engaging the community, policing is only one aspect of the battle, which includes stemming the availability of firearms and streamlining the prosecution of offenders

Eric Burton became a public eyesore at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when five digital billboards began broadcasting his face across Central Florida.
The faces of the region's most notorious fugitives will reach tens of thousands of motorists daily as part of an advertising push in support of Crimeline, the cash-for-tips crime-fighting program.
"It's absolutely huge for us," Crimeline coordinator Barb Bergin said after Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and police Chief Val Demings unveiled a billboard mock-up at police headquarters. "The more people who see them, the more cases we can help solve."
Burton, 32, is being sought in the New Year's Day killing of an Orange County man and the shootings of two teenagers.
He was last seen fleeing in a metallic-green 2002 Ford Mustang from the shooting outside a bar on South Rio Grande Avenue.
Images of Burton and other fugitives will alternate with conventional advertising on the billboards, which are owned by Clear Channel Outdoor. The company is donating the advertising space to Crimeline.
Arrested 42 times before, Burton is the sort of repeat felon targeted by another Crimeline program that Dyer discussed Wednesday.
"We are breaking the culture of silence," said the mayor, referring to an aggressive campaign offering $1,000 rewards to anyone who gives information leading to the confiscation of an illegal gun and an arrest with gun charges. "We've saved lives because Orlando residents have taken a stand against violent crime."
In the gun bounty's first year, Crimeline received 910 tips on criminals with guns in Orange County.
As of Wednesday, the program had agreed to pay $38,000 for gun tips last year. Not all of the rewards had been collected because some tipsters have not claimed the money.

Overall, tips to Crimeline in 2007 led to 1,199 arrests and cleared 1,372 criminal cases in the six-county Central Florida region, Bergin said.

The "WANTED" billboard campaign, which Clear Channel Outdoor runs in several cities, has produced numerous arrests in Philadelphia, Memphis and Indianapolis, according to police.

The Central Florida billboards are at the intersections of State Road 408 and Kirkman Road; Interstate 4 and Fairbanks Avenue; I-4 and Wymore Road; Semoran Boulevard and U.S. Highway 17-92; and S.R. 434 and U.S. 17-92.

The majority of deaths were of males (72 per cent)
73 per cent of all deaths were under the age of 45 years.
56 per cent of cases died from accidental poisoning. This is a five percent increase compared with the previous year. However, the proportion of intentional self-poisoning cases remained stable at 35 percent.
Opiates/opioids (i.e. heroin/morphine; methadone; other opiate/opioid analgesics), alone or in combination with other drugs, accounted for the majority of fatalities (68 per cent) in 2004. Even though the total number of deaths had fallen between 2003 and 2004, the number of deaths involving heroin/morphine was virtually unchanged and so there has been an increase in the proportion of deaths involving heroin/morphine by 6% (to 46%). The proportions of deaths involving other illicit drugs remained stable.

Ireland as a society entering a 10-year cocaine epidemic. Dr Luke predicted there would be 'dozens and dozens' of further deaths such as Katy's over the next decade.
'There is a spiralling interest in drug-taking among children and teenagers, which also perfectly fits the same curve of the distribution of leaflets and drug talks. I do worry that all you are doing is exposing them to a menu that they might dabble in,' he said
Philomena Lynott, who will mark the 21st anniversary this January of her son's death from a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, condemned the widespread use of drugs such as cocaine in Ireland.
Stephen Rowen, clinical director of the Dublin-based Rutland Centre, said: 'Cocaine is quite available, it's in most pubs and virtually every city, town and village in Ireland. We have no way of knowing before people use it how it will affect them - if they could have a stroke, heart attack, some severe medical reaction, or get addicted, which is a very expensive and horrific way to live.'
Katy, 24, died in hospital after collapsing and falling into a coma at a friend's house in Ashbourne, Co Meath, last weekend. Preliminary tests indicate she had cocaine in her bloodstream. The star of the Celebrities Go Wild series had been drinking champagne at her friend's home but, contrary to earlier reports, there was no party taking place.
A gramme of cocaine in Dublin costs around €40 (£29), making the Republic one of the cheapest places to buy the drug in the industrial world. Its widespread availability is due, in part, to geography: the Irish coastline provides an ideal 'dumping point' for drug cartels and gangsters smuggling cocaine by sea from South America via the West African coast to Europe.

Deaths in England and Wales caused by alcohol related disease have doubled in the last 20 years, and the year to 2001 showed the highest percentage increase in alcohol-related deaths for any year since 1979.

The age at which these deaths occur is increasingly younger and younger. The death rate for those aged between 25 and 44 has tripled since 1979. There are even more deaths where alcohol has been involved, such as accidents and suicides.

As the liver is the principal organ responsible for breaking down alcohol it bears the brunt of excessive drinking. The first stage of alcohol-related liver disease is "fatty liver". This is a side effect of the liver's attempts to break down alcohol, and is the accumulation of excess fat in the liver. It is often symptom-free, but is picked up during routine medical examinations. Although very common in heavy drinkers, it is also commonly found in those drinking just above the recommended limits. Fatty liver is often the precursor to a number of severe liver diseases such as alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis.

In cases of alcoholic hepatitis, giving up alcohol combined with a good diet can lead to a complete recovery, although death rates in alcoholic hepatitis are high. In the case of cirrhosis however, the illness affects the liver's ability to regenerate itself and there is no cure. If the sufferer continues to drink it will bring about complete liver failure. 10% of those suffering from cirrhosis go on to develop liver cancer, which is fatal within 6 months. It is unclear why some individuals go on to develop these severe diseases whilst others consuming similar quantities of alcohol do not.

Three per cent of the organs transplanted into patients in the past five years came from donors with a history of drug abuse - some of whom died from an overdose - figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

One transplant surgeon said doctors were "desperate" for organs and had to use some they would otherwise have rejected.

Designer drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT. Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which openly sell their products on the internet.

DMT Dimethyltryptamine

Found in minute quantities in certain Amazonian plants and in the human brain. Smoked, the effects are nearly instantaneous and very strange. "The closest you'll get to experiencing death bar actually dying" as one user put it.

Dose 2-60mg
Duration Less than 10 minutes
Legal status Class A
Price £100 a gram on the street

***

5-Meo-DMT Methoxydimethyltryptamine

A more powerful sister compound of DMT, occurring naturally in the venom of the Bufo alvarius toad but generally smoked in synthesised form. Not uncommon for those who take large amounts to suffer psychological and emotional difficulties for weeks afterwards.

Dose 1-20mg (smaller than a grain of salt)
Duration 5-20 minutes
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $175 (about £90) a gram

***

2C-I (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine)

Most likely candidate for the coveted title "the next ecstasy".

Powerful psychedelic stimulant described as a cross between MDMA and LSD but with much gentler side-effects. Already appearing in pill form on the UK dance scene.

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

***

2C-T-2 (2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine)

Respected psychedelic, from the same phenethylamine family as MDMA and mescaline.

Noted for its warmth and "outrageous visuals".

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

New drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT. Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which openly sell their products on the internet.

The rapid growth in the transatlantic online trade in such chemicals has been fuelled by international differences over legality. While Britain has outlawed all of these drugs - under an amendment to the Misuse Of Drugs Act in February 2002 - they remain legal in most other countries, including the majority of EU member states. Even in the US, despite some of the most draconian anti-drug laws in the world, the bulk of research chemicals are legal to manufacture, sell, possess and consume.

With ecstasy dropping in price and popularity, users and dealers in this country are looking further afield to obtain new highs. A recent Home Office survey found that ecstasy use had dropped 21% in the last year. The street price had also dropped to an all time low of £2-£3 a pill.

But while most research chemicals are too psychedelically powerful to make it as club drugs, one, 2C-I, is rapidly gaining popularity in this country as a dance drug, thanks to some similarities in effect to MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy. More than 125 pills of the drug were seized by police last year, including 65 at the Glastonbury festival, and some London dealers are offering it for £10 a tablet.

Methamphetamine can be cooked up using a handful of household chemicals, but byproducts can include toxic waste in the local water supply, fires and explosions.

Globally, users are said to outnumber those of heroin and cocaine combined, but its prevalence in the UK is still a matter of some debate.

The UK is further removed from the suspected "meth labs" of Mexico and south-east Asia, than Australia and the rural US, where methamphetamine use is said to have reached epidemic proportions.

Among the new flavors are strawberry, known as "Strawberry Quick," chocolate, cola and other sodas, Robertson said. One agent reported a red methamphetamine that had been marketed as a powdered form of an energy drink, he said.

A patrol officer who stopped a car on Feb. 13 in a rural area of Greene County, Mo., seized a bag of "strawberry meth" from a female passenger, says Capt. Randy Gibson of the Greene County Sheriff's Department. The seized drug had a slight strawberry smell to it, he said.

Greene County deputies have seized colored meth before, Gibson says. Several years ago, blue methamphetamine, known as "Smurf dope" circulated in the area, Gibson said.

"It was nothing more than one of the local meth cooks taking a great deal of pride in his purity," Gibson says. "He ground up blue chalk to color it so he could market it as his."

Carson City, Nev., Undersheriff Steve Albertson says dealers often try to make their meth distinctive with color or a catchy name as a way to brand it. "Then they'll spread the word that this meth, whatever color it is, is the best kind of meth there is," he said.

The appearance of "Strawberry Quick" in Greene County came less than two weeks after the Nevada

The sale of some cold remedies will be restricted to one small pack per customer in Britain to prevent gangs making the crack-like drug, crystal meth.


Government medical advisors said on Wednesday that large packs of decongestants containing the chemicals ephedrine and pseudoephedrine would be withdrawn from sale.

They would be replaced by packs of 12 or 24 tablets containing a total of 720 mg of the drugs.

The move follows police concerns that criminals are using the ingredients to manufacture methylamphetamine – crystal meth – in illegal laboratories.

Although use of the drug is low in Britain, the government is anxious to prevent the problem growing to the serious levels seen elsewhere.

However, the medicines will remain on sale at pharmacies and not become prescription-only, as had been suggested in a consultation which ended in June.

Drugs manufacturers, who had lobbied against prescription-only sales, welcomed the new restrictions.

"This is a sensible and proportionate approach to a problem that is still almost non-existent in this country, but one we all want to avoid," said Sheila Kelly, executive director of the Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB).

There has been only known case – on the Isle of Wight – of an illegal crystal meth lab in Britain using pharmacy products, the PAGB says.

The restriction will affect around one in 10 cold remedies sold in Britain, including versions of Actifed, Benylin, Lemsip, Meltus and Sudafed.

All are already only sold in chemists and are kept behind the counter.

The smaller pack sizes would be sufficient for around three days' treatment, the PAGB said.

Most people only need to take decongestants for one or two days, it added.

A government advisory body will monitor the restrictions for the next two years to check they are working.

It will retain the option to recommend moving the medicines to prescription sale if the measures do not reduce the risk of illegal crystal meth manufacture.

Methamphetamine can be cooked up using a handful of household chemicals, but byproducts can include toxic waste in the local water supply, fires and explosions.
Sold as crystals, pills or powder, it can be smoked, swallowed or injected and is said to be highly addictive.

Globally, users are said to outnumber those of heroin and cocaine combined.

Seven years in jail and an unlimited fine, while dealers could be jailed for life.
Sends the wrong message to teenage drug users
heavy use can lead to paranoia, kidney failure, violence, internal bleeding and less inhibited sexual behaviour.

Crystal is made of highly volatile, toxic substances (based on such chemical "precursors" as methylamine and amyl amine) that are melded in differing combinations, forming what some have described as a "mix of laundry detergent and lighter fluid."

The mixes are never exactly the same, but basic types are a rough yellow substance called Hydro and a smooth white blend called Glass. Half a gram costs around £25 and a £15 hit would probably keep you going for a few days.

The drug can either be snorted or injected, or in its crystal form 'ice' smoked in a pipe, and brings on a feeling of exhilaration and a sharpening of focus. Smoking ice results in an instantaneous dose of almost pure drug to the brain, giving a huge rush followed by a feeling of euphoria for anything from 2-16 hours.

For some this could result in obsessive cleaning or tidying, but for many the biggest bonus is the sense of sexual liberation which can result in mad, abandoned sex for hours - sometimes days - on end.