Meghalaya is not only a transit route for cough syrup to be smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh but also a production hub.
Police today busted an illegal operation in East Jaintia Hills that manufactured in-demand cough syrup like phensedyl and seized around 10,000 bottles of the spurious liquid drugs.
Based on credible source information received today, Khliehriat police and the anti-narcotics taskforce located and arrested one Altaf Hussain (32) of Assam, who was known to have received a consignment of illegal contraband and hidden it in a warehouse.
Hussain then led the authorities to the warehouse from where 9,883 bottles of phensedyl were seized. A case against him has been taken up against him from Khliehriat police station.
During interrogation, Hussain revealed information regarding one Ratan Dkhar (56), a resident of Ummulong. Dkhar operated a mini factory in the basement of his home that manufactured cough syrup that was then branded as phensedyl for illegal sale in Bangladesh.
At his house 600 bottles of Elcodyl cough syrup, flavouring agents, food colouring, other phensedyl ingredients and other paraphernalia, a bottling machine and two “sophisticated machines for drug preparation and filtration” were recovered, police said, along with Rs 11,790 in cash.
Dkhar gave police information about another accomplice, Shaheen Rahman (32), who helped in transporting the cough syrup towards Assam. He has also been arrested.
Further he also revealed that he has two accomplices from Assam. An accomplice of Altaf, Shri Shaheen who helped in transportation of the cough syrup towards Assam has also been arrested.
