Kerala now a hub for drug smugglers
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The State is not only providing migrants from North India employment with better pay but also an opportunity to make a fast buck by smuggling medicines to Bangladesh.
An investigation by the central zone drugs control department has revealed the latest trend.
“We have information that drug smuggling from Kerala is going on for sometime,” said Ravi S. Menon, central zone assistant drug controller.
“It is believed that drug mafias are behind the trade. The mafias buy huge amounts of drugs with codeine content from different parts of the State,” he said.
“If one such bulk purchase is from Aluva, the next would be from Cherthala and so on. Chemists inform us whenever somebody buys medicines in bulk.”
Daily-wage workers who come to Kerala are going back home with bundles of analgesics such as codeine phosphate and dextropropoxyphene. These medicines are later smuggled to Bangladesh with the help of women.
For smugglers, it is easy to purchase drugs from the South, as there is a strict vigil in northern states.
Bangladesh has a small number of pharmaceutical companies and alcohol is banned there.
As such, Bangladeshis depend on painkillers for intoxication.
The drugs control department has issued strict orders to medical stores not to sell in bulk to migrant labourers. The department has also been conducting regular raids on medical stores across the State to check sale of codeine drugs.
Drug control dept probe reveals that
*Migrant labourers are smuggling drugs from Kerala to Bangladesh
*Labourers go back home with bundles of analgesics such as codeine phosphate and dextropropoxyphene
*Bangladesh has a small number of pharmaceutical companies. People depend on painkillers for intoxication
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