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Despite stringent administrative restrictions and claims of drug prohibition in Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Region (NCR), the illegal trade of cough syrup containing banned codeine is not showing any signs of stopping. Ignoring government orders, this drug mafia syndicate is still working very active and fearlessly. Illegal consignments of banned drugs coming out of the factories of drug manufacturing states like Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand are being transported directly to the intelligence bases of NCR and then by making Uttar Pradesh a big transit corridor, it is being taken to Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat and even crossing the international border to Bangladesh. Recently, a raid on a secret warehouse in Sahibabad Industrial Area of Ghaziabad has exposed the layers of this entire interstate and international smuggling network.
In a major operation conducted late on Monday night by a joint team of Sahibabad Police and Narcotics Wing, a huge consignment of syrup containing codeine was recovered. Preliminary investigation has revealed the shocking truth that the drug mafia was adopting very clever methods to deceive the legal agencies and investigating officers. On papers and billing documents, the official address of delivery of these medicines was shown as Delhi, whereas in reality, their illegal storage was done in a secret warehouse located in Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad. A thorough investigation by the police has revealed that the smugglers had taken this warehouse on rent just two months ago. Within the last sixty days, large consignments were being continuously loaded from this warehouse and sent to Bangladesh from Bihar, Gujarat, Bengal and border areas through road. The special investigation team of the police is now preparing to visit the headquarters and plant of the concerned drug manufacturing company in Himachal Pradesh, summon detailed records from the officials and inquire as to how such a large number of banned syrups were reaching private hands without a valid permit.
There was a time when codeine-containing syrups and many other similar cough medicines were outside the strict ambit of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. At that time, any common citizen or youth could easily buy them from any general medical store without any doctor’s prescription and there was no legal restriction on its open sale. Taking advantage of this exemption, the drug mafia had established a very deep and organized supply chain in the districts of Uttar Pradesh and NCR. However, as soon as the government brought it under the strict ambit of the NDPS Act and imposed a complete ban on its open sale, seeing the magnitude of its addiction among the youth, its normal sale in shops stopped, but its black business at the underground level started flourishing rapidly. In the greed of huge profits, the drug syndicate converted it into an underground network, due to which Uttar Pradesh and NCR have today emerged as the biggest transit hub for the supply of these drugs.
The areas of NCR and Western Uttar Pradesh have always been suitable hideouts for the drug mafia and this is not the first case when such a huge consignment of codeine syrup has been seized. In the year 2023, the police had seized 15,200 bottles of banned Phensydryl cough syrup by raiding the premises of a transport company under a flyover located on Meerut Road in Hapur district. After this, in the year 2024, 800 bottles of codeine syrup were also seized from a warehouse located near Bhatiyana village of Hafizpur police station area. In the year 2025, Ghaziabad Crime Branch, in a historic action, raided a transport hub near the fish warehouse complex on Meerut Road, where a huge consignment of cough syrup worth Rs 3.40 crore, hidden in four big trucks, was recovered and eight vicious smugglers were sent behind the bars. This racket was also at its peak in areas like Palwal and Nuh Mewat of Haryana, where this intoxicating syrup was sold from medical stores to paan kiosks, on which, after a big media sting in 2023, the police conducted an intensive campaign and arrested 17 people and recovered 5,688 bottles.
Despite many big revelations in the past, FIRs and serial arrests of smugglers, how the mafia network is working so strongly, it raises serious questions on the functioning of the local police administration and the state drug control department. The way vehicles from factories in Himachal and Maharashtra travel hundreds of kilometers and cross checkposts of many states to reach the warehouses in NCR, exposes the surveillance on interstate borders. Due to the implementation of complete prohibition in Bihar, the demand for codeine syrup as an alternative to drugs is skyrocketing, which the mafia is taking direct advantage of and is sending it to the borders of Bihar and Bangladesh at three to four times higher prices. Sahibabad Police says that in this case, they are going to take action under strict gangster and NDPS sections not only against those hiding the goods at the local level but also against the kingpins, transporters and production companies of the entire network.