"I am a 12th pass. Dilip Jaiswal set up my firm and handled everything, from paperwork to transactions. I earned 20,000 rupees a month."
This is how Badal Arya described his role in a sprawling codeine-laced cough syrup smuggling racket recently busted by the Uttar Pradesh police, in what is shaping up to be one of the state’s biggest crackdowns on the illegal trade.
Arya, in his statement, said that he was only a minor player in a vast network of fake pharmaceutical firms, through which hundreds of thousands of bottles of syrup were routed across UP, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, eventually even reaching Bangladesh.
Officials said on Thursday, 11 December, that the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) have made two more arrests in the case — Abhishek Sharma and Shubham Sharma from Lucknow. Both are accused of illegally storing and trading Phensedyl cough syrup and other codeine-based medicines for use as intoxicants. The police have also identified more than 10 key suspects believed to be orchestrating the organised nexus behind the racket.
So far, 128 FIRs have been registered, 34 arrests made, and the FSDA has issued notices to cancel 280 drug licenses. Joint investigations by the State Police, Special Task Force (STF), and FSDA have also revealed links to Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Assam, and Tripura, showing the network spans multiple states.
From ghost pharmacies to fake firms registered under the names of street vendors, here’s everything the investigation has uncovered so far.