Illegal drugs unit busted, police say part of larger racket
A similar case was busted in Maharashtra and Meerut on June 6 and following tips from those cases, we raided the premises today. ANKUR AGGARWAL,
An illegal medicine manufacturing and packaging unit was busted in the Ecotech 3 area on Tuesday afternoon, said police, adding that some of the substance found at the unit could even be fake. No one had been arrested till the filing of this report.
The unit allegedly ran from a rented space in a factory. Police said they were questioning the landlord to trace the suspects.
According to police, they acted on a tip on unlicensed production of medicines from the area.
“A similar case was busted in Maharashtra last week, based on that another racket was busted in Meerut on June 6 and following that, the raid was conducted today,” said additional deputy commissioner of police, zone 2, Ankur Aggarwal, adding that police partnered with the drugs department and administration in the raid.
Police said they found sacks of substances marked antibacterial and antivirals, along with packaging material and machines. “We also obtained empty packets labelled Fabiflu (a drug used to treat Covid-19). Some of the packets carried a ‘Made in Solan, Himachal Pradesh’ tag and ‘For sale in government hospitals only’ warnings,” said the officer.
Police estimate the haul could have cost ₹50 lakh. “The unit in Greater Noida is an extension of a much more extensive racket,” said a police official. “When we questioned workers at other nearby units, they said that there had been no production here in the last few days. Most probably the helpers had gone underground when the operations in other cities were busted.”
The substances found at the unit were sent for forensic examination. Based on the complaint of the drug inspectors, a case will be registered at the Ecotech 3 police station soon under relevant sections.