NCB arrests Lucknow man for illegal export of anti-anxiety pills to US

An officer said that based on a tip off, the NCB tracked a shipment at a courier facility in Mumbai that was about to be shipped to the US. The said shipment from the Mumbai-based courier office was found to be packed with branded tea leaf box. On preliminary check, abnormality in contents was noted, an officer said “When opened, multiple strips of Alprazolam tablets were recovered. From the total shipment items, 1,000 strips containing a total of 15,000 Alprazolam tablets were recovered,” the officer said.

During further investigation, a Lucknow-based person named Samar S was identified to be associated with the network. Accordingly, NCB-Mumbai team nabbed him and took him for further investigation.

An officer said, “It was noticed that the members of this network were heavily depending on no-digital contact method to evade the agencies.”

Being a scheduled drug under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the production, distribution, sale and consumption of Alprazolam is highly regulated. However, norms are strict in countries such as the US on its supply, while in India, norms are not strictly adhered to, making it a supply point for several western countries.

Agency officials have found that international post is one of the most frequently used methods to send these pills abroad.

In two other operations carried out by the NCB in Bhiwandi and Dongri in the past week, three persons were arrested for selling cough syrup in and around Mumbai.