Agartala, Oct 17 (IANS) In a joint operation, security forces recovered drugs worth Rs 4.5 crore from a goods train arriving here from Delhi, officials said on Friday.

A senior official said that, acting on specific intelligence, a joint team of security forces conducted a thorough search of a goods train stationed at the Jirania railway station in West Tripura district and recovered 90,000 bottles of banned Eskuf Cough Syrup.

The Eskuf Cough Syrup, banned in India, contains Codeine Phosphate and Triprolidine Hydrochloride, substances commonly misused as narcotics in India and neighbouring Bangladesh. The estimated value of the recovered drugs, subsequently seized, is approximately Rs 4.5 crore in the illegal market, the official added.

In a major success against drug trafficking, the Tripura Police, Assam Rifles, Government Railway Police (GRP), Special Task Force (STF) and the Customs Department jointly conducted the operation and seized the consignment of illegal pharmaceutical drugs, he stated.

After the goods train, carrying chicken feed, rice and other items, arrived at Jirania railway station from Delhi, the search operation commenced on Thursday evening and continued into the early hours of Friday.

The seized items were found unclaimed and hidden in two wagons alongside other cargo. The consignment has been handed over to the Customs Department for further investigation and necessary legal action.

Assam Rifles, in coordination with other enforcement agencies, continues to remain vigilant and committed to curbing the menace of drug trafficking in the Northeast and safeguarding the region from illegal activities.

With the latest seizure of drugs, narcotics worth over Rs 134.50 crore have been confiscated in Tripura in less than three weeks.

On October 6, in one of the major drug hauls, the Assam Rifles, in close coordination with Customs officials, seized contraband valued at Rs 70 crore in Tripura’s bordering Khowai district and arrested four drug peddlers.

Acting on secret inputs, the joint team of Assam Rifles and Customs officials intercepted two trucks carrying cement as cover cargo for narcotics trafficking and recovered 69.61 kg of highly addictive methamphetamine tablets valued at around Rs 70 crore.

A Defence spokesperson had said that the October 6 operation was a follow-up to a successful operation conducted on September 29 in the bordering Mohanpur area of West Tripura district. The September 29 operation led to the recovery of 60.77 kg of banned methamphetamine tablets worth Rs 60 crore. A senior police official said that the drugs seized on September 29 and October 6 might have been smuggled from Myanmar and transported through Mizoram and southern Assam to Tripura, from where they were intended to be smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Tripura, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, is surrounded on three sides by the neighbouring country, making the northeastern state vulnerable to cross-border migration, crimes, illegal trade and smuggling. Except for some patches, most parts of the frontier have been fenced to prevent smuggling, trans-border crimes and illegal infiltration.

–IANS

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