Zolpidem, a sedative medicine, is used to treat sleep disorders and its abuse as a narcotic can lead to hallucinations and other side effects.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted an illegal pharmaceutical drug trafficking racket. Four persons have been arrested and over 55,000 tablets of Zolpidem, abused as drugs, was seized from them.
Zolpidem, a sedative medicine, is used to treat sleep disorders and its abuse as a narcotic can lead to hallucinations and other side effects. The central anti-narcotics agency said the alleged racket, where medicines are abused as drugs, was being run using courier services and it brought to the fore "a new modus operandi for trafficking of pharmaceutical drugs through call centres".
An NCB statement said that the four accused P Rana, P Bisht, R C Singh, and KK Tiwary "acted as drug traffickers and obtained contact numbers of illegal buyers/sellers of pharma drugs from a legal platform available on the internet".
Once all contact numbers were collated, they would form a closed internet group and all the dealings would be done thereon, mostly through Skype messenger or other voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calling apps (applications).
The NCB said it seized a total of 55,875 Zolpidem tablets as part of an intelligence-based operation spanning Ghaziabad, Lucknow, and Roorkee to foreign shores, including the US.
"Further interrogations of the four accused revealed that the said consignment was being sent to Varanasi to be dispatched to foreign destinations where there is a huge demand for such pharmaceutical drugs," the agency said.
The four have been arrested under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the statement said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Pills")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}