Nation against drugs: Gurugram-based online pharmacy shipped psychotropic medicines to US, busted

By Team MynationFirst Published Aug 4, 2018, 4:24 PM IST
Highlights

The company Zatak Softech, which allegedly floated 57 websites, had tie-ups with certain US firms that purportedly was in the business of creating websites, but it was actually dealing in illegal drugs over the internet
 

The NCB has busted an illegal Gurugram (Gurgaon)-based online pharmacy that was allegedly shipping psychotropic medicinal tablets to the US and some European countries under the garb of 'herbal medicine'.

Psychotropic medicines are drugs such as amphetamine-type stimulants, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and psychedelics. They are made of chemical substances that change brain function and result in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behaviour.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has recovered over 22,000 such tablets, officials said today.

The Delhi zonal unit of the NCB said it detained Amit Kumar in this connection and added that two of his companies -- Zatak Softech and Farma Glow -- were under the scanner for allegedly running the illicit drugs trafficking racket.

It said agency sleuths had intercepted 44 packets of such psychotropic substances bound for the US, the UK and Hungary at the Foreign Post Office here on August 2. The packets bore authentication stamps of various regulatory departments and the consignment was declared and concealed as "herbal medicines", the NCB added.

The NCB subsequently raided various premises linked to the firms and their owner in Gurgaon and recovered a total of 22,410 tablets of psychotropic medicines like Diazepam, Zolpidem, Clonazepam, Alprazolam, Nitrazepam, Tramadol and others, officials said.

A total of 79 fake seals of various government agencies like the Postal Department, Customs, insurance companies, banks, hospitals and pharma companies were also seized during the raids, a senior NCB official said, adding that the companies of Kumar were illegal online pharmacies actively trafficking drugs from India.

Zatak Softech had allegedly floated 57 websites. The company had tie-ups with certain US firms under the pretext of creating websites but were actually dealing in illegal drugs over the internet, he said.

The NCB has frozen 17 bank accounts of the firms floated by Kumar and identified assets worth Rs 22 crore that could be attached under the anti-narcotics law, the official said.

Further probe is on, he added.

With inputs from PTI

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