The Bengal Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday night seized a truckload of cough syrup that is used as an addictive stimulant and arrested three persons from Uttar Pradesh.
The arrests and the seizure were made in the Deshbandhu Park area of Habra in North 24-Parganas. An STF officer said the arrested trio were Kuldeep, Deeraj Bishwakarma and Sonu. All the three are residents of Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh and were carrying the drug on the truck.
A senior officer of the STF said 4,900 bottles of phensedyl cough syrup were seized from the truck with Uttar Pradesh registration number. He said the STF would interrogate the arrested persons to know whether they were smuggling the addictive stimulant to the India-Bangladesh border from Uttar Pradesh.
“We have started a probe to know whether the consignment was intended for agents across the border as there is a high demand for phensedyl as an addictive stimulant in the neighbouring country. We want to trace those involved in this racket,” said the officer.
The STF has started a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985 at Habra police station.
The trio were produced in the Barasat court in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday. The trio have been sent to jail custody.
A source in the STF said the smuggling and the seizure of phensedyl cough syrup was not a new phenomenon. Local police and the Border Security Force (BSF) had several times seized cough syrups and arrested several carriers.
In April, the BSF had arrested a postman from Swarupnagar of North 24-Parganas for his alleged role in smuggling cough syrups to Bangladesh.
“However, this is the first time we have found the existence of a smuggling racket that has links to Uttar Pradesh. The consignment was being sent to Bangaon in North 24-Parganas, which is close to the Bangladesh border. We will investigate to find out the exact supplier and the end-user of the drug,” said an STF officer.