International drug racket uncovered with arrest of three persons from Lucknow

The UP Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have unearthed a racket of smuggling prohibited medicines to US from India, on Saturday, after the arrest of three Lucknow men from the Durgapuri locality of Nilmatha area, under the Cantt police station limits of the city, on Friday.

The STF seized at least 22,850 tablets of Tramadol Hydrochloride and 17,880 tablets of Lupin-10 Zolpidem and ₹6.57 lakh as well as wrappers and packaging material of herbal and ayurvedic medicines.

STF officials said that these drug peddlers used to get orders from international customers through WhatsApp, Skype as well as the Dark Web, while the payments were made through online virtual currencies like Bitcoin, payment gateways and through the Hawala network.

They said around ₹20 lakh has been found deposited in their bank accounts and the process of freezing their bank accounts has been already processed.

STF additional superintendent of police (ASP), Vishal Vikram Singh, said that those arrested were identified as Yasir Zameel Khan alias Faizi, a resident of Nilmatha; Hamza Ahmad and Inamul Haq alias Inam, both residents of Mehhboobganj locality, under the Saadatganj police station limits of Lucknow.

He said the trio was arrested when they were present near Yasir Jameel’s house near Nilmatha at around 4.30 pm on Friday. He said the STF also took along assistant commissioner of food safety and drugs administration (FSDA), Brijesh Kumar and his team to examine the drugs.

He said prohibited medicines were recovered from the premises of Yasir Jameel and were seized after proper examination by the FSDA team.

The ASP said Yasir Jameel revealed during interrogation that he befriended Hamza and Inam in 2021 after which he entered into this business through them. He said the duo was involved in this business before him and had offered to send these two medicines to different addresses in the US after getting orders from international clients. He said Yasir had sent these medicines to US-based clients as many as 150 times in the past two years.

“Yasir said that the duo offered him ₹600-700 per strip of the tablet, which is available in the Indian market for merely ₹30-40. He used to purchase these tablets from different drug dealers and courier to international addresses after changing its wrappers with herbal and ayurvedic medicines mentioned on it. He used to make these wrappers himself,” the ASP said and added, “After sending it to different addresses; he used to send the tracking link of the courier services to them through WhatsApp.”

He said the three arrested accused are the first leg of this international drug-peddling racket and there are many legs of this nexus which are being probed. He said the STF has lodged an FIR against the three accused under appropriate Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections as well as sections of Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Cantt police station.