Ahmedabad: 42,000 bottles of Codeine cough syrup seized, three held

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Ahmedabad, and Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat, seized more than 42,000 bottles of safe cod codeine phosphate cough syrup from Patan and Ahmedabad.

The value of the seized goods is estimated at Rs 47 lakh. Officials said that, 37,198 bottles of the cough syrup were recovered from a godown near Rajpur bus stand in Patan on June 29 in the joint operation by the two agencies.

"We arrested Lalit Patel, owner of Diya Healthcare, Sanand, under different sections of NDPS Act. The unit has drug license for its Sanand establishment, but the consignment of codeine syrup was stock at Rajpur, which is illegal," Hari Om Gandhi, director of NCB Ahmedabad, told reporters. NCB said in a release that all bottles of the syrup are from the same batch, and they were manufactured in a unit in Himachal Pradesh. The batch size was 50,000 bottles, out of which 12,900 bottles were illegally sold to Vansh Pharma Medical illegally during the last two days.

Codeine is a part of a group of drugs known as opioids, which have a high potential for addiction. Codeine abuse can develop into a full-fledged addiction, experts said. NCB said that when used as prescribed, cough syrup is a pain reliever. Based on information provided by the accused, NCB and FDCA teams seized 2,400 syrup bottles from Hathijan and 2,760 bottles from a house in Behrampura.

LICENCES CANCELLED

Hemant Koshia, commissioner, FDCA, said they have suspended licenses of 27 chemist shops in and around Ahmedabad in the last two months for selling codeine containing cough syrups and other violations.