Drugs trafficking racket operating online busted

| | New Delhi | in Sunday Pioneer

The Delhi Unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted an illegal online pharmacy operating from Gurugram that was allegedly shipping psychotropic medicinal tablets to the United States and some European countries under the garb of 'herbal medicine'. NCB has also recovered over 22,000 such tablets.

 “The pharmacy was supplying banned medicines internationally through internet and made crores of rupees”, Madho Singh the Zonal Director of NCB said.

“Acting on a specific information, sleuths of the Delhi zonal unit of the NCB detained Amit Kumar. Investigation revealed he was involved in large scale supply of banned drugs to many foreign destinations. Two of his companies -- Zatak Softech and Farma Glow -- were under the scanner for allegedly running the illicit drugs trafficking racket”, Singh said.

The NCB sleuths had intercepted 44 packets of such psychotropic substances bound for the US, the United Kingdom and Hungary at the Foreign Post Office in the national Capital on Thursday last. The packets bore authentication stamps of various regulatory departments and the consignment was declared as “herbal medicines”, the NCB official added.

The NCB subsequently raided various premises linked to the firms and their owner in Gurugram and recovered a total of 22,410 tablets of psychotropic medicines like Diazapam, Zolpidam, Clonozapam, Alprazolam, Nitrezapam, Tramadol and others, officials said.

A total of 79 fake seals of various Government agencies like the Postal Department, Customs, insurance companies, banks, hospitals and phrama companies were also seized during the raids, a senior NCB official said, adding that the companies of Kumar were illegal online pharmacies actively trafficking drugs from India.

Zatak Softech had allegedly floated 57 websites. The company had tie-ups with certain US firms under the pretext of creating websites but were actually dealing in illegal drugs over the internet, he said.

The NCB has frozen 17 bank accounts of the firms floated by Kumar and identified assets worth Rs 22 crore that could be attached under the anti-narcotics law, the official said. Further probe is on, the Zonal Director added.