Man held in Lucknow with over 5,000 bottles of fake cough syrup laced with banned sedatives

In a crackdown on illegal drug trade, the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) has arrested a man and seized over 5,300 bottles of fake cough syrup from a house in Lucknow, officials said on Friday.

The syrup was found to be mixed with banned sedatives and falsely labelled to look like a genuine product from reputed pharmaceutical companies, a senior official said.

“On the basis of specific intelligence, officers raided a house on Thursday and recovered 5,353 bottles of cough syrup,” Deputy Narcotics Commissioner Praveen Bali told PTI.

“In a unique modus operandi, the syrup was found laced with NRx medicine such as Alprazolam and Clonazepam and labelled as Codeine Syrup by putting false labels of reputed companies,” Bali said.

“The accused did not possess any legal documents or license to store or sell such medicines. The entire stock was seized under the NDPS Act, 1985, and one person has been arrested,” Bali said.

Further investigation is underway to track the network involved in this illegal drug trade, they added.