Delhi Police dismantle narcotics gang, seize drugs worth ₹1 crore

Delhi Police dismantled a narcotics gang in Bawana, arresting three men and seizing drugs worth ₹1 crore, including Alprazolam and codeine.

The Delhi Police have dismantled a narcotics gang involved in illegally manufacturing and distributing medicinal drugs, arresting three men and seizing Alprazolam tablets and codeine phosphate syrup worth ₹1 crore from a factory in northwest Delhi’s Bawana Industrial Area, officials said on Friday.

Police with the accused and seized contraband. (HT Photo)

Investigators familiar with the case said that the three accused — Samaludden Sadik (28), Mohd Gulzar (34), and Salman Iqbal — were illegally producing habit-forming drugs like Alprazolam, codeine phosphate, Tramadol, and triprolidine hydrochloride (antihistamine), falsely labelling them as genuine pharmaceuticals.

The factory, the officer cited above said, had been active for six months. Around 180,000 alprazolam tablets, 90,000 bottles of codeine phosphate and multiple bottles of chemicals used to make the syrup were recovered from the illegal unit during the rain on Wednesday.

Police said the drugs recovered were mainly sold as anti-anxiety drugs, cheap sedatives and antihistamines that were not readily available in the market.

A senior police officer said, “We had received a tip about Sadik, a resident of Agra, selling alprazolam across states. We started following his movements and found that he was visiting Delhi often. On Wednesday, the team traced his location and caught him in Bawana Industrial Area along with the other two accused. We found them with medicines labelled as Kojex and Curex-T.”

The raid at their factory revealed that they were illegally producing narcotics and selling them to “receivers and suppliers in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand”, the officer cited above said.

Special commissioner of police (crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said the ingredients for producing alprazolam were sourced from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the tablets were manufactured in Delhi. They also recovered printed paper (wrapper), labels, chemicals, tablet-making and packaging machines.

Labels and packaging mimicked legitimate brands, with medicines marked as “Dr Just” or “Curex-T” to deceive buyers.

Sadik, a B.Pharma graduate, was the kingpin and had set up the unit after leaving his job at a pharmaceutical company, DCP Srivastava said. “He and Gulzar worked at the same pharmaceutical company in 2019. In 2020, during the pandemic, they left their work”

Police said they rented a factory with Iqbal where they manufactured and sold codeine in tier-two cities. They also promoted their illegal trade using fake social media profiles.

“They also sold alprazolam and tramadol since they are habit-forming drugs. Sadik made a fake Facebook ID to promote his business online. They would get customers/receivers through their old contacts in the industry or online,” said another officer.

Police said while Sadik was in-charge of the distribution of the drugs, Gulzar was in charge of the factory.