The city police on Saturday busted a drug racket, which allegedly procured ecstasy narcotics from medical stores using fake prescriptions and arrested a 26-year-old in this connection.
The arrested was identified as Afzal, a native of Mulavukad.
The police also seized 60 Nitrazepam tablets from his possession, meant for sale to party goers in Kochi. Efforts are on to trace the remaining members of the racket.
According to the police, the gang used to take out-patient registration form in other people’s names from the psychiatric ward of the General Hospital here. “They then add the names of ecstasy drugs including Nitrazepam, Nitrozen, and Nitravit and buy the drugs from medical shops, sometimes using the same prescriptions multiple times,” they said.
The gang would then resell the drugs for party users and among youths who work in major business establishments. They used to charge ₹1,000 for a single strip containing 10 pills, the police said.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team arrested the accused from a location near the Ernakulam General Hospital. He was booked under provisions of the NDPS Act