Bengaluru company COO arrested for trying to smuggle 10 lakh Tramadol tablets to Sudan

The accused had allegedly mis-declared the contraband material as Tamol-X-225 - a calcium carbonate tablet and was trying to smuggle the contraband abroad, but the Customs department intercepted the shipment before it went out and seized the banned psychotropic substance

MUMBAI: The Customs department on Saturday arrested the chief operating officer of a Bangalore-based company for allegedly trying to smuggle around 10 lakh tablets of Tramadol to Sudan. Tramadol is a painkiller pharma drug which was declared a psychotropic substance and banned in India since April 2018.

HT Image

The accused had allegedly mis-declared the contraband material as Tamol-X-225 - a calcium carbonate tablet and was trying to smuggle the contraband abroad, but the Customs department intercepted the shipment before it went out and seized the banned psychotropic substance.

The accused is a Bangalore resident Gudipati Subramaniyam, 49, COO of M/s First Wealth Solutions, who was arrested by Customs officials on Saturday morning.

According to Customs sources, the Central Intelligence Unit last month intercepted one export shipment before it could be shipped to its destination. The shipment was examined at the Air Cargo Complex in Sahar.

The consignment was destined for a pharmacy firm in Juba in South Sudan and was sent by M/s First Wealth Solutions. It was declared by the exporter that the said consignment contains 21 packages of 10.5 lakh Tamol-X-225 tablets.

As the description on the boxes did not match the actual contents of the shipment, Customs took it as a case of misdeclaration and seized the shipment on February 28. A sample was sent to the lab for testing and the test result revealed that the seized tablets were Tramadol, a painkiller extensively abused all over the world by addicts.

The Customs department then registered a case under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and summoned the authorised representative of M/s First Wealth Solutions. Accordingly, Subramaniyam appeared before the Customs officials, and after his involvement in the case was found, he was placed under arrest.

Customs sources said that the accused used to look after all the business of the firm, and he attempted to export the Tramadol tablets by mis-declaring the contraband as calcium carbonate tablets he purportedly also admitted before the Customs officials that, in the past, he had successfully exported Tramadol abroad in a similar manner.

Customs officials are looking for Subramaniyam’s associates and further probing the case.