Palghar drug bust: Unit owner under DRI scanner

Mumbai: A day after a pharmaceutical unit in Palghar was raided by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), officials are probing the antecedents of the owner of the production unit to see if he was instrumental in sending illegally-manufactured tablets overseas.

The officials said that the factory was in operation for at least a year. The Tramadol tablets were sent across the state after their production. An investigation is, however, underway to find if they were exported outside India. Following two days long raids and searches in Palghar, the DRI seized over 3 tonnes of Tramadol tablets worth over `50 crore from a warehouse. The said tablets are listed as banned narcotics in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.  “We are probing the links (including overseas). We are questioning the accused further,” said a DRI officer. DRI officials said that the seizures were based on specific intelligence that a pharmaceutical unit was manufacturing Tramadol illicitly. A team of Mumbai DRI searched the unit in Palghar and recovered 1.62 crore Tramadol tablets in cartons and 2.6 tonnes of loose tablets.

Tramadol is a painkiller that extensively abused all over the world by addicts. India has recently brought the drug under the ambit of the NDPS Act, making its production and sale without prior registration and the approval of the narcotics commissioner illegal, DRI officials said.

“Based on the raid further information of more tablets was learnt at a warehouse in Dronagiri from where further another 4.47 crore Tramadol tablets were recovered in a godown,” said a DRI officer.

The officials have arrested three persons, including the owner of the factory for further questioning.

Tramadol tablets are notorious for being the choice of ISIS fighters who are reported to consume them for sustaining for longer period after being injured. ISIS
terrorists allegedly take Tramadol however DRI has not found any link between the busted unit and ISIS as yet.