COIMBATORE: In a chain of crackdowns against drug smuggling rackets, the Coimbatore City police have arrested two persons and seized 7,800 sedative painkiller pills worth over Rs 25 lakh on Friday, which were prescribed as scheduled drugs.
One of the arrested was working as an attendant at an AC coach of Hisar Express and smuggled the drug consignment from Rajasthan while another received the drug at Coimbatore Railway station. The drugs, Tydol and Tapentadol were sourced from Rajasthan to supply to Coimbatore city, police said.
Based on information gathered from nine arrests made in a drug bust last week, a special team had been tracing and monitoring the supply chain which played a key part in the recent drug bust.
Among the two held, the carrier Deepak alias Cikkandar (21) a Haryana native, who was working as an attendant in the AC coach of Hisar Express had smuggled the consignment by hiding it in the AC coach of the train. When the train reached Coimbatore junction at 2.10 pm, Pappu Ram (34) of Rajasthan, who has been residing in Coimbatore for around 15 years, received the parcel. Pappu Ram was working at a hardware shop in the city where he met his supplier from Rajasthan who had also worked in the city a few years ago, said police, adding that they are on the lookout for this supplier.
“The special team had already busted a racket from Haryana, operating the network through two online platforms including an e-commerce website. The managing directors of both firms were summoned for investigation,” City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan said.
Likewise, last week, the special police team arrested four suspects who had smuggled sedative pills from Kerala using fake prescriptions.
Further, they arrested a five-member gang on Sunday from Madukkarai Market Road in Coimbatore and seized 260 sedative tablets and 155 g of ganja, police alleged. After probing the gang, police came to know about the arrival of drugs via train from Rajasthan, propelling the recent bust.
“Anti-drug clubs and an SI rank police officer under the ‘Police Bro’ project have been ensured for each college in the city to eradicate drug abuse. A team is monitoring the supply of synthetic drugs like LSD, MDMA and ganja from northern states. In fact, recently, we seized a parcel containing 4.5 kg of ganja from Shillong in Meghalaya through the parcel service of India Post. We are working to trace the network,” added Balakrishnan.
Since October 2024, the city police have arrested 31 suspects and seized 3.4 kg ganja, 29,562 tablets, 21 mobile phones, a laptop, 12 bikes and Rs 98,000 cash in drug-related incidents in Coimbatore city.