Delhi Police seizes 31 kg of Alprazolam tablets; busts multi-state racket with arrest of three

The accused were allegedly part of an organised network involved in the illegal manufacture, transportation and distribution of the banned psychotropic substance across Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region NCR, he said.

The Delhi Police has busted a major interstate psychotropic drugs racket with the arrest of three people and seizure of 31 kilograms of Alprazolam tablets, an official said on Saturday. The accused were allegedly part of an organised network involved in the illegal manufacture, transportation and distribution of the banned psychotropic substance across Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region (NCR), he said. The operation was carried out following intelligence-driven surveillance aimed at tracking drug peddlers active in the NCR. Acting on specific inputs, the team arrested two accused near Nand Nagri Bus Depot while they were travelling in a car bearing an Uttar Pradesh registration number. The arrested individuals have been identified as Shamim, a resident of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, Rajeev Sharma and Mohit Gupta, both from Bulandshahr. During the search, police recovered 31 kilograms of Alprazolam tablets -- estimated to be around three lakh tablets -- which falls under commercial quantity as defined in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The commercial quantity threshold for Alprazolam is 100 grams, officials said. Apart from the tablets, the team seized 11 kg of aluminium foil with ''Alprazolam'' printed on it, 25 kg of PVC sheet rolls used for tablet packaging, 20 rubber stamps bearing batch numbers, manufacturing and expiry dates and the car used in transportation. The recovery of packaging material and printing tools indicated a large-scale illegal pharmaceutical manufacturing setup, police said. An FIR under the relevant sections of the NDPS Act was registered on January 29. During the investigation, the vehicle was found to be registered in the name of Mohit Gupta, who was subsequently apprehended at the instance of the other accused. During interrogation, Sharma allegedly told police that he used to collect Alprazolam tablets from Shamim and his associate Randeep in Himachal Pradesh on the directions of Gupta, and supply them to local pharmacies in Bulandshahr. Shamim allegedly disclosed that he and his partner were running an illegal manufacturing unit in Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh, where the tablets were produced and supplied to distributors in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Gupta, who allegedly runs a medical firm in Bulandshahr, told investigators that he procured the illegal tablets through his firm and distributed them to pharmacies in Agra and Bulandshahr, police said.

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