Bolangir: Police on Saturday busted a huge cough syrup smuggling racket and took two persons into custody for questioning in this connection. Acting on a tip-off, police conducted inspection of vehicles in Tureikela area where they detected some unloading activities from a truck.
They raided the spot and questioned the driver of the vehicle only to detect several cartons of cough syrup packed in the truck. Sources said the cough syrup consignment was due for smuggling to Raipur and Bengaluru. Around 100 cartons packed with over 15000 cough syrup bottles have reportedly been seized from the truck. Both the vehicle and the cough syrup have been confiscated by the cop.
Experts say that most cough syrups are procured from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar for distribution to traders in western Odisha. The smugglers have a chain of networks with which the cough syrups are sold out in markets outside Odisha.
It may be noted that when IPS Himansu Lal had earlier raised serious concerns that if cough syrup smuggling is not curbed, western Odisha may turn into Punjab Taking strong note of his expression, police had conducted a massive crackdown on the illegal trade of cough syrups. The action forced the narcotic peddlers on the backfoot with the arrest of many smugglers.