JOIN USThe Delhi police seized a truckload of codeine-based cough syrup, meant for illegal supply to northeastern states through railway parcels.
Police said the contraband worth Rs 1.2 crore in grey markets, was sized on Thursday from Old Delhi.
“The recovered codeine-based syrup, popularly known as purple drink, was to be supplied to Kolkata and thereafter to northeastern states like Mizoram, where sale of liquor is banned being a dry area. This syrup is sold in those areas for eight to ten times of the maximum retail price,” said a senior police officer.
The drug induces lethargy, he added.
The police have apprehended two drug traffickers, identified as Ajay Kumar Tiwari and Jaswant Tiwari, who are residents of Ambedkar Camp in East Delhi.
The consignment had 15,606 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup brand, Phensedyl, police said.
After being tipped off about the illegal consignment, the police intercepted the truck near the Old Delhi railway station. Pointing at the involvement of a Kolkata-based businessman, Delhi police said that after purchase of contraband from sellers in Agra and Rajasthan, the consignment was to be transported to Kolkata via Delhi through railway parcels, which was meant for further supply to northeastern states.
“On conducting vehicle search, 39 cartons were recovered from the truck and the occupants could not produce any valid document for possessing the contraband legally,” police said in a statement.
The accused Jaswant Tiwari, used to transport the consignment of medicines through parcels in various parts of the country, before taking up the lucrative business of supplying contraband cough syrup, police said. “Jaswant’s relative and associate Ajay had come to Delhi on his insistence and started driving trucks for him”, police said.