Churaibari, January 7 (TIWN): Acting on tip­off, Police personnel from Churaibari police station, Officer ­in­charge and SDPO led by Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl. SP), North district recovered 680 bottles of contraband items worth Rs. 48960 from Agartala- Karimganj local train, here today.

Speaking to TIWN, police personnel of Churaibari police station informed that based on secret information, Police conducted raid in the train.  During the search, police recovered contraband items worth Rs 48,960. According to the police, the contraband items were smuggling to Agartala from Silchar. Though no one had been arrested yet. Investigation is going on- the personnel further added.

Earlier, Ambassa police station and jawans of 71 Bn Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) recovered 710 bottles of contraband items (Eskof syrup) worth Rs. 1 lakh froma Maruti van at Chamalcherra area of Ambassa sub­division.Based on specific inputs, traffic police and police of Ambassa police station led by Officer­in­Charge (OC) ­Swapan Dasgupta tried to stop a Maruti van bearing number TR01­0755 at Ambassa town. Other than that.  police of Manpathar police station led by SDPO Santirbazar­ Surajit Dhar recovered 450 bottles liquor and 45 packets dendrite worth of Rs 48,220.from Manpathar area,

Tripura, which is mostly used as a corridor for smuggling pharmaceutical drugs into Bangladesh from Delhi and other parts of the country, is learnt to have grown a safe haven for pharmaceutical drug smuggling in the entire South East Asia. According to the source, hundreds of smugglers based in Tripura are sending spurious Phensedyl, a cough syrup, with an exceedingly high dose of codeine and other drugs to Bangladesh virtually by then the truckload; hundreds of acres of remote land in West Tripura have become sprawling ganja plantations.

Consumption of alcohol is banned in Muslim majority Bangladesh and thus the demand of alternative means like cough syrup is on the rise in the neighboring country. Numerous smugglers of both sides of border are engaged in illegal trade of Phensedyl as it gives them huge income, the source added. Large parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar are emerging as drug consuming zones, and bordering areas of Tripura are contributing to the fast emerging drugs market, the source mentioned. We are well aware of the situation and the police often detain vehicles and seize thousands of bottles ofPhensedyl consignments that are not used in Tripura. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The network is verydeep­rooted and widespread. The Phensedyl smuggling would, in future, become a major deterrent to better IndoBanglarelations, the source further said.