Railway Parcel Intercept Leads to Massive Codeine Syrup Confiscation

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) executed a precision strike on a railway parcel that was transporting a massive quantity of codeine‑based cough syrup. On July 2, DRI officers intercepted a cargo van attached to a passenger train heading for Agartala in Tripura. The van contained eighty metal drums, each lined with a fine powder that served as a camouflage for the hidden medicinal product.

Inspectors broke open the drums and discovered a total of 55,626 bottles of cough syrup, which were immediately confiscated under the NDPS Act, 1985. The operation was supported by the Railway Protection Force and Assam Rifles, who provided security and logistical assistance. The individual who had come to collect the consignment was arrested at the scene.

A parallel raid in West Bengal’s Dankuni district targeted a storage facility where 104 sealed iron drums concealed an additional 56,225 bottles of the same codeine‑containing syrup. The smuggler had applied a layer of china‑clay powder over the bottles to evade detection by standard inspection methods.

Together, the two actions resulted in the seizure of more than one lakh bottles of illegal cough syrup, marking a significant blow to a network that routinely diverts pharmaceutical drugs for non‑medical purposes.