Detectives on Friday arrested four drug peddlers with 200kg of cannabis and 184 bottles of eskuf, a cough syrup that can be as addictive as phensedyl.
This is the first time that eskuf has been seized in the country.
Both eskuf and phesedyl contain codeine phosphate (codeine), an opioid derived from morphine. Although codeine is commonly used as a cough suppressant, it has an analgesic (pain killing) effect that can easily lead to addiction, according to the Electronic Medicines Compendium (medicines.org.uk).
The drug peddlers were arrested during a drive near Nagdarpar Bridge in Tejgaon. They were identified as Md Jewel, Md Humayun, Md Sadeq and Md Liton.
During a press conference at the DMP Media Centre on Saturday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner (Detective Branch) Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid said a case has been filed against the arrestees with Khilgaon police station on narcotics charges.
“The drug peddlers posed as vegetable sellers and brought the drugs to Dhaka from the border areas of Brahmanbaria district on pick-up trucks. The eskuf was brought to Bangladesh illegally through the phensedyl route,” he added.
According to labels on the bottles of eskuf, the syrup was produced by the company Laborate Pharmaceuticals in India.
Mukul Jyoti Chakma, deputy director of the Narcotics Control Department, told media that routes through which phensedyl and other addictive cough syrups were being brought into the country need to be closed off.