Gurugram: Four Iraqi nationals arrested for smuggling Covid-19 and cancer medicines

Gurugram Haryana drug control authorities, along with local police, have busted an international drug racket and arrested four Iraqi nationals for allegedly smuggling

Gurugram Haryana drug control authorities, along with local police, have busted an international drug racket and arrested four Iraqi nationals for allegedly smuggling Covid-19 and cancer treatment medicines to Iraq. The suspects were nabbed on Monday night from two different locations in Gurugram and medicines worth ₹45 lakh and more than ₹75 lakh in cash were recovered from them, the police said.

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Forty eight vials of remdesivir, 55 strips of Fabiflu (favipiravir) and 18 packs of Lopikast -- the three medicines used in the treatment of Covid-19 patients -- were among a huge cache of medicines seized during two separate raids in sectors 47 and 57 lasting over eight hours, the police said.

Apart from drug control department authorities and local police, officials of CM flying squad and crime branch were part of the raiding team. The total value of seized medicines is estimated to be over ₹45 lakh in India, which is worth several crores of rupees in the black market, said police officials.

The officials said that the suspects, who have been staying in the city for several years allegedly on expired visas, used to hoard the medicines using local contacts and then smuggle them to Iraq where one 100mg vial of remdesivir, which costs ₹5,400 in India, is sold at an exorbitant price of over ₹1 lakh. The suspects enlisted medical tourism patients or students who were visiting India, often paying for their air fare, and used them as a conduit to smuggle medicines to Iraq.

“Prima facie, it appears that they used to source medicines from two local contacts and then send the consignment to Iraq through patients, who came to the city for treatment. Their aide would collect the medicines and drugs at the airport in Iraq. The recovered batch of medicines was scheduled to make its way to Iraq on a recent flight, which was grounded, and hence such a large inventory was found from their possession,” said Chander Mohan, deputy commissioner of police (east).

“We are also tracing the two local suppliers, and trying to ascertain how they were able to source drugs used to treat Covid-19 since they are in short supply,” Mohan said.

The police said that they were probing if the suspects had a nexus with medicine distributors, health care professionals, chemists and hospitals.

Amandeep Chauhan, drugs control officer, Gurugram, said, “The suspects said that Fabiflu, which costs ₹2,500 per strip in India, is sold in Iraq at ₹7,500 per strip. Lopikast, whose one bottle containing 30 tablets costs around ₹3,000 in India, is sold at ₹15,000 per bottle there.”

Remdesivir is an experimental drug administered to Covid-19 patients in emergency situations, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. It is an injectable drug only given to Covid-19 patients who are moderate to severely ill, especially those who are fresh admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). The drug is in short supply compared to its high demand across the country, the officials said.

Remdesivir is manufactured by USA-based Gilead Sciences. In India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) granted the permission to manufacture and market the drugs to Hetro, Cipla and Mylan. The officials said that in Gurugram, currently 60 vials manufactured by Cipla and 20 by Hetro are available in five multispecialty hospitals where patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus are undergoing treatment.

On July 6, the enforcement division of CDSCO had directed all state drug controllers to ensure that remdesivir is not sold illegally after they received complaints regarding black marketing and over pricing of the drug. With the possibility of hoarding and black marketing of the drug, the district drug control department was on high vigil.

The other two antiviral medicines, Fabiflu and Lopikast that were seized, are oral medicines easily available at pharmacies. Fabiflu is a 200mg tablet used to treat mild to moderate coronavirus cases.

RAIDS AND ARRESTS

Acting on a tip-off, the first raid was conducted at a condominium in Sector 57, where two Iraqi nationals -- identified as Akram Faiz (21) from Baghdad and Aws Raad Nealmah Al Hendi (31), a BCA graduate -- were arrested. A large amount of medicines worth ₹30 lakh and ₹35.5 lakh in cash were seized from the house.

The police said that Faiz and Al Hendi had come from Iraq to Pune on a student visa in 2013 and arrived in Gurugram in 2016, following which they started hoarding and smuggling medicines to Iraq. After their visas expired, they acquired ‘refugee’ status, they said.

In the second raid at a house in Sector 47, two Iraqi nationals from Baghdad, Mohanad (26) and Othmana (27), were arrested. They told the police that they had come to India in 2017 for study and later got into black marketing of medicines. Both are currently enrolled in a pharmacy course in Bengaluru, said the police. The police have also seized an SUV in the second raid in which some Covid-19 medicines and ₹39.05 lakh in cash were recovered.

A police official, who was part of the raid in Sector 57, requesting anonymity, said, “The suspects worked as translators earlier and took to smuggling medicines for money. They had a database of foreign nationals coming to Gurugram for medical tourism. One of the suspects, well versed in Hindi, said that they used to source medicines from two contacts. Some of the medicines were smuggled through flights, hidden in chess boards. Two of the suspects had studied pharmacy, so they had contacts in the supply chain and had knowledge of the medicine sector. ”

Two separate FIRs were registered on Tuesday at Sector 56 police station and Sadar police station. None of the suspects had valid licences to stock the medicines or relevant record for their scientific or medical use or sale/purchase record of the recovered medicines, the police said.

A woman from Uzbekistan was also detained from the Sector 47 house. According to the police, during questioning, the woman said that she had come to Gurugram in January this year but could not return due to the lockdown and subsequent closure of flights. The police said her role is being probed, and they have written to the embassy concerned to verify her documents.