AHMEDABAD: The city crime branch has caught two men for selling the banned
codeine
syrup in the
Behrampura
area, said police officers on Sunday. Codeine is an opioid usually used to treat pain. Police officers said that one of the arrested men was a bootlegger in 2020.
According to the officers,
Jignesh Rana
, 21, a resident of Manek Chowk, and Prakash Chauhan, 23, a resident of Danilimda, were arrested on Saturday. The officers said that the two men worked as couriers for
Saeed Ahmed Syed
of Behrampura.
Rana was earlier a small-time bootlegger and was caught in a prohibition case by Khadia police in 2020. After that, he turned to the illegal business of selling codeine syrup for Syed.
“Both Rana and Chauhan were autorickshaw drivers,” said a police officer. “Syed used to give them Rs 400 per day to sell codeine syrup. He also gave them syrup bottles as incentive.”
The officer said that Rana and Chauhan were addicted to codeine during the Covid peak in 2020 and at that time they had met
Syed
who offered them work. “As they could not earn much during the Covid crisis, they decided to sell codeine syrup,” said the officer.
The duo used to sell the syrup in secluded places in the Calico mill compound. “They usually sold the syrup to their regular customers,” said another officer. “But they later served other people based on references from old customers.”
The crime branch cops caught the two from Gate Number 6 of Calico mill and seized 83 bottles of codeine syrup from them.
They were booked under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, said a crime branch officer.