South Dinajpur police on Tuesday night seized 20,725 ampoules which were supposed to be smuggled into Bangladesh and arrested six persons who were allegedly involved in the transportation of the illegal consignment.

Sources said the smugglers had adopted a new strategy to take across the international border the ampoules containing medicines which were in demand for substance abuse in Bangladesh. They hired a recovery van to take the consignment to Hili near the border.

“Usually, smugglers use cars and other vehicles. But this time, they hired a recovery van to evade checking,” said Bikram Prasad, the deputy superintendent of police (headquarters).

Patiram police received a tip-off that the ampoules were on the way to Hili from Kumarganj in South Dinajpur district. They intercepted the recovery van and picked up driver Alok Mondal, a resident of the Harpur area of Patiram.

The police searched the van and found 20,725 ampoules packed in 10 cartons. “We suspect the ampoules were supposed to be smuggled into Bangladesh. There is a huge demand for the medicines which were in the ampoules among drug abusers in the neighbouring country,” said a police officer.

When the police interrogated Mondal, he revealed the names of five persons allegedly involved in the smuggling. A joint team from Patiram and Hili police stations raided Srirampur village in Hili and arrested Utpal Pal, Akhil Pal, Sanatan Pahan, Bikram Pahan, and Amit Pal.

During the preliminary investigation, the police learned that the six had brought the ampoules from another district and stored them in Kumarganj.

“We need to interrogate them to collect details of the racket that deals with illegal consignment of medicines,” said Prasad.