Punjab police seize 10 lakh pharmaceutical drug tablets; smuggler held

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On Tuesday, in an anti-narcotic drive, the Punjab police arrested a smuggler and seized over 10 lakh tramadol pain killer tablets, in Bhatinda.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Special Task Force (STF), Gurpreet Deo while addressing a press conference here said that Bhatinda Police carried out the operation and nabbed one accused, identified as Pradeep Goyal who has allegedly supplied around 70 lakh Tramadol tablets in the last 10 months.

Highlighting the effect of Pharmaceutical drugs, Deo said, "Pharmaceutical drugs are synthetic drugs, also known as habit-forming drugs. Youngsters across Punjab are consuming these drugs on a large scale and Punjab police is running an intrinsic operation to fight a battle against drug supply and consumption in the state."

"Main accused, Pradeep Goyal, was running a chemist shop in Bhatinda. He was doing so by using his brother-in-law's drug license. He has supplied around 70 lakh Tramadol tablets in the last 10 months. We have found that he has links in Delhi and Zirakpur. We have requested the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department to cancel Pradeep's drug license," she added.

During the anti-narcotic drive, the Punjab police recovered 20,500 tablets from Pradeep's residence. Later, cops tracked one Sonu, who had links with Pradeep and recovered 9 lakh tablets from his godown and 1, 56,000 tablets from his car.

Deo further informed that the police conducted raid at Pradeep's pharmaceutical store in 2011 and his license was suspended for 21 days. Later he changed his store's name from AP medical store to Jai Maa and continued his drug business.

Back in 2018, the police had recovered 7 lakh Tramadol tablets from his possession and his drug license was cancelled permanently. Food Safety and Drugs Administration Department has raided 117 Chemist stores in the state in the last 5 months, informed a police official.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is trying to fight against the drug menace in the state, On July 12, The Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana met in Chandigarh on Friday to discuss greater coordination in the battle against drugs, and agreed to hold an inter-state meeting of all the northern states in this regard on July 25.

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