ED attaches assets of Telangana pharma firm for 'illegal' export of drugs to Pakistan

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Thursday said it has attached assets worth a few crores of a Telangana-based pharmaceutical company under the anti-money laundering law on charges of illegally exporting over 18,000 kg of pharma drugs to Pakistan.

A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was issued on Wednesday against the company Lucent Drugs Pvt. Ltd. based in the Sangareddy district of the state.

The attached assets include land, building and factory premises of the company and these are valued at Rs 5.67 crore, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The company or its directors could not be contacted immediately for their response to the ED action.

The money laundering case stems from a complaint filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) against the company for "contravention" of psychotropic substances regulation laws, illegal export of Tramadol drug and forgery of documents relating to various export authorisations, the ED said.

Tramadol is a synthetic opioid-like drug used as a painkiller.

However, global anti-narcotics agencies have found that its shipments originating from India and other countries were being illegally diverted for use by ISIS terrorists operating in Syria and other locations apart from other terror groups like the Boko Haram of Nigeria.

It was declared a "psychotropic substance" by India in 2018 and its sale in the country is regulated and monitored by the NCB.

The ED said Lucent Drugs Pvt. Ltd. has been in the business of manufacturing and exporting Tramadol to its overseas clients, including those based in Pakistan.

It claimed that an investigation found that the company initially got a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) to export Tramadol to Pakistan but later this authorisation was revoked.

However, the promoters and directors of Lucent Drugs Pvt. Ltd. "illegally" re-exported 13,800 kg of Tramadol valued at Rs 4.12 crore to Pakistan through Denmark-based company CHR Olesen Pharmaceuticals and a second consignment of 5,000 kgs of Tramadol valued at Rs 1.33 crore through a Malaysia-based firm SM Biomed, the ED said.

The company received export funds or proceeds of crime of Rs 5.46 crore in its bank accounts as a result of these "illegal" exports of Tramadol to Pakistan, it added.