The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized more than 1.11 lakh bottles of codeine-based cough syrup in two operations in Tripura and West Bengal under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
In the first operation on 2 July, officers intercepted a consignment being carried in the parcel van of a train bound for Agartala. They found 55,626 bottles concealed inside 80 metal drums beneath a layer of powder used as cover cargo.
The Railway Protection Force and Assam Rifles assisted the operation. One person who had arrived to receive the consignment was arrested, according to the official account.
In a separate action during the same period, DRI officers searched a warehouse at Dankuni in West Bengal. They recovered 56,225 bottles from 104 sealed iron drums. In that consignment, the bottles had been placed under china clay powder in an effort to avoid detection.
Together, the two seizures involved 111,851 bottles. The consignments were seized under the relevant provisions of the NDPS Act, while the arrest was connected with the Tripura operation.
Codeine is an opium derivative with legitimate therapeutic use in regulated pharmaceutical preparations. Cough syrups containing codeine are also vulnerable to diversion because of their potential for misuse when moved outside the authorised supply chain.
The method used in both cases was similar: sealed industrial drums, a powder layer and pharmaceutical bottles hidden underneath. That pattern is important to the investigation because it indicates deliberate concealment rather than an ordinary documentation lapse.
The DRI said intelligence-led and coordinated operations remain central to identifying trafficking networks that attempt to divert controlled pharmaceutical products. Further proceedings will depend on the evidence gathered under the narcotics law.
