Banned painkiller worth Rs 32 lakh seized; drug cartel with foreign link busted

The Delhi Police has busted an interstate syndicate involved in the illegal supply of banned pharmaceutical drugs and seized 54,000 Tramadol tablets worth more than Rs 32 lakh, an official said on Monday.

Five people have been arrested over alleged involvement with the racket, which is suspected to have international links, he said.

Acting on specific intelligence, police laid a trap in Madanpur Khadar Extension-I in southeast Delhi on October 7 and apprehended a man carrying a large bag, a senior police officer said.

The man, identified as Mohd Abid (50), a resident of Madanpur Khadar, was found in possession of 54,000 tablets of Treken-100, a Tramadol-based psychotropic medicine, banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said.

Tramadol is a strictly controlled opioid (painkiller) notified as a psychotropic substance under the Act in 2018.

An FIR under provisions of the NDPS Act was registered and Abid was arrested, he added.

During questioning, Abid disclosed that he was allegedly working with an associate Javed Khan (45), a resident of Johri Farm in Jamia Nagar area. Khan was subsequently arrested, police said.

Further investigation led to the arrest of three more persons -- Sunil Kumar (40), who operates a warehouse in Samalka near the Kapashera border, Vishnu Dutt Sharma (62), an exporter from Dwarka, and Vikas Singh alias Ishwar Yadav (38), owner of a courier business in Rangpuri.

Police said all five were part of an organised network involved in procurement, storage and distribution of banned Tramadol tablets across Delhi and other states.

According to investigators, Javed Khan, who has been working as a customs house agent for more than two decades, allegedly leveraged his contacts to facilitate the movement of psychotropic substances through illegal channels.

Sunil Kumar allegedly provided storage at his warehouse, while Sharma and Singh were involved in logistics and distribution.

The officer said the scale of the seizure indicates that the syndicate had international supply links, which are now being probed.

Police said further investigation is underway to identify other members of the cartel and track the larger supply chain.