Rs 100 cr drug haul in Patiala
Saturday, 12/10/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131012/punjab.htm#3
Patiala : A day after AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi spoke about rampant drug abuse in Punjab, the Patiala police today recovered synthetic drug worth more than Rs 100 crore with the arrest of five members of an inter-state gang of drug smugglers by the Rajpura police.
They were identified as Delhi residents Rakesh Kumar, Mahesh Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Puri and Parveen Kumar and Jalandhar resident Kamal Raj Chawla.
Two gang members, who are yet to be nabbed, are said to be close to a former minister. They run a firm in Karnal that manufactures prohibited drugs.
The Additional DGP, Law and Order, Dinkar Gupta, and Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hardyal Singh Mann claimed that Rs 100-crore worth synthetic drugs such as parvon forte, parvon spas, proxyon and spasmocip plus made from dextropropoxyphene hydrochloride salt and banned under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, had been recovered from Karnal-based Pioneer Pharmaceuticals and Prime Pharmaceuticals.
The unit was manufacturing banned drugs and supplying these to various parts of the country through a network of commission agents, Gupta said.
He said the recovered drugs included 90 kg diphenoxylate hydrochloride, 65 kg codeine phosphate and 25 kg powder (180 kg in all).
Besides, 7,10,000 capsules of parvon forte nand spasmocip pluse, 6,600 bottles of fancidryl, a cough syrup, seven bags containing blank shells of capsules and other material required for preparing these drugs had been seized.
Sources said the drug dealers fled after setting ablaze two trucks carrying the contraband.
"We have taken pictures and are conducting raids to nab the smugglers. Influential persons based in Ludhiana and Amritsar who are close to some politicians are also under the scanner," they sources said.
\"Owners of the Karnal unit, Prithvi Singh Chaudhary and his son Pradip Chaudhary, fled abandoning their Innova following the raid. They were said to be well- connected. The Additional DGP said that the border zone had registered FIRs against 52 top smugglers.
