DRI seizes huge quantity of potency-increasing drugs being smuggled in guise of herbal products

The DRI has arrested three people for their alleged involvement in trying to smuggle to the United States over 1 lakh banned tablets, including potency-increasing drugs, in the guise of herbal and wellness products.

Based on a specific information, the Chennai zonal unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted nine consignments at a courier office containing psychotropic substances prohibited under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and seized the consignment, an official statement said on Friday.

Further searches at the mastermind's address and a courier franchisee's premises through whom the consignments were booked resulted in the seizure of large quantities of similar tablets of psychotropic substances and potency-increasing drugs at different stages of export, the statement said.

The substances seized include Alprazolam, Diazepam, Hydrocodone, Nitrazepam, Phentermine, Zolpidem and Oxycodone (all psychotropic substances) as well as dubious cocktails of tadalafil and sildenafil (Viagra and Cialis), it said.

A total of 1.37 lakh tablets were seized. The drugs were being shipped for illicit use in the United States, according to the statement.

The accused included the mastermind of the syndicate, who was receiving the drugs from various suppliers all over India and packing and preparing them for export, it said.

They confessed to smuggling the psychotropic substances for financial gain, and are suspected to be part of a wider online racket, it added.