Delhi Police Special Cell (SWR) announced the arrest of a key figure in an inter-state drug syndicate from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. They seized approximately 6,48,942 capsules/tablets of Tramadol and 44834 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, valued at an estimated total of Rs 8 crore, from the individual. Additionally, incriminating documents and three mobile phones were recovered.
According to authorities, the detained individual has been identified as Yusuf Azam (43), residing in Mahmood Nagar Chowk in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
“He was arrested from a hideout in UP’s Lucknow on April 8, and a case under sections 22/29 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him,” officials said.
“In the month of October 2023, the team of Special Cell (SWR) arrested three members of the syndicate, namely Md Faizan Beg, a resident of Kardampuri, Delhi; Md Zubair, a resident of Kisanganj, Uttar Pradesh; and Rekha, a resident of Delhi. Accordingly, a case was registered and substantive quantities of psychotropic substances were recovered. During the course of the investigation, other members of the gang were also arrested and recoveries from them were also affected,” Delhi Police DCP (Special Cell) Manoj C said.
He stated that the primary mastermind of the operation, Yusuf, has been evading arrest since then. The detained suspects, Faizan and Zubair, revealed that they used to obtain the psychotropic medications from Rahul and Tushar.
“Both of them were also arrested and from their interrogations, mobile phones and bank account statements, it was found that the mastermind of the group is Yusuf Azam,” the DCP said.
He also mentioned that several raids were carried out at various hideouts believed to be connected to the suspect Yusuf Azam. “He was deliberately evading his arrest and constantly changing his hideouts. The team of Special-Cell (SWR) launched manual and technical efforts to apprehend the absconding accused Yusuf Azam. The strenuous efforts to apprehend him revealed that he was hiding in the area of Transport Nagar, Lucknow,” he added.
Additional information was gathered, leading to the identification of his hideout. Subsequently, on April 8, a raid was conducted, resulting in his apprehension from the mentioned hideout. He was subsequently detained in connection with the case and placed on a 5-day police custody remand. This marks the seventh arrest in the ongoing case.
Officials revealed that during extensive questioning, accused Yusuf confessed to his involvement in the illicit trade for 15 years.
“He is running a pharmaceutical firm by the name of AK Pharma. Besides this, he had also taken the licences of other firms on rent, so that he could procure the psychotropic medicines in bulk quantity, sell them without any invoices and earn huge profits by selling them in the grey market. He has also been previously arrested by NCB under the NDPS Case in 2013 for the procurement and supply of the contraband ‘Codeine’ vide NCB case u/s 8/21/27A NCB Mahanagar, Lucknow,” they added.
The case is under ongoing investigation.