Coimbatore City Police bust prescription drug peddling network

A special team of the Coimbatore City Police has busted a group of men involved in the illegal procurement of prescription drugs from Haryana and their peddling in Coimbatore.

The seven persons arrested in the case included a Haryana native, who had been acting as a carrier by working as a temporary cleaner in Hisar - Coimbatore Superfast Express.

The arrested have been identified as Deepak, 20, of Haryana, Pappuram, 34, of Rajasthan, S. Kesavan, 26, A. Dinesh, 24, of Vellalore housing unit, S. Saranraj, 23, G. Ajithkumar, 23, of Mayilkal at Kuniyamuthur, and Mohammed Hussen, 24, north housing unit at Selvapuram.

According to the police, the special team found Kesavan, Dinesh, Saranraj, Ajithkumar and Hussen in possession of 155 gram of ganja, 20 Alprazolam tablets and 240 Tapentadol tablets near Madukkarai a few days ago. The police launched an investigation to trace the source of the prescription drugs and found out that the five men, out of which four had been involved in different cases before, had sourced the drugs from Pappuram.

The police arrested the five men on Thursday and subsequently questioned Pappuram, who had been residing in Coimbatore for 15 years, to find out the origin of the drugs. Pappuram, who worked in a hardware store in the city, confessed to the police that he had been sourcing prescription drugs through a friend in Rajasthan. According to the police, Pappuram’s friend, who had earlier worked in Coimbatore, used to handover the drugs to Deepak when the train reached Rajasthan.

The police learnt from Pappuram that Deepak was bringing prescription drugs to Coimbatore via Hisar - Coimbatore Superfast Express on Friday. As the train arrived in the city on Friday afternoon, the police arrested him and seized a bag containing 7,800 prescription drugs.

“The peddlers had been sourcing a tablet for ₹60 and selling the same for as high as ₹300. If peddled, the accused could have earned around ₹23 lakh. We are on the lookout for the remaining accused (Rajasthan native),” said City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan, who lauded the special team.

A police officer said that the peddlers in the city bought the tablets from Pappuram by paying him cash, and also by making UPI payment directly to the main accused in Rajasthan.

Published - November 08, 2024 08:57 pm IST