Despite the drop in the cattle smuggling and smuggling of other narcotics, Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup remains a challenge for the border guarding forces along the India-Bangladesh border. On February 14, personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) arrested two youths for allegedly smuggling it near the Hakimpur border outpost in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
A communication shared by the BSF said that two local youths Mostakin Sheikh, 19, and Shaheen Sardar, 21, were allegedly involved in smuggling of the narcotic over the past few days in the region. They were to be paid ₹500 for transporting 60 bottles of Phensedyl which was recovered from their possession.
S. S. Guleria, Deputy Inspector General and spokesperson of South Bengal Frontier of BSF, said that these arrests were the result of the BSF developing a network of ascertaining information on smuggling, and attempts were being made so that nothing could be hidden from the troops.
In the first few weeks of the 2022, the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF had seized about 1,000 bottles of Phensedyl in the border areas. In 2021, South Bengal Frontier seized about 1.64 lakh bottles of the cough syrup. The seizure in 2020 was 2.99 lakh bottles and in 2019 it was 1.98 lakh bottles.
Senior officials of the BSF said it was the difficult to contain the smuggling because Phensedyl is smuggled in low quantities from India to Bangladesh. “In the past few years, we have stopped factories in the hinterland that were manufacturing Phensedyl. Sometimes farmers smuggle it, at other times people throw it over the fence on the other side of the border,” a senior BSF official said.
A bottle costs about ₹200 in India and the moment it crosses the border, the price goes up to thousands. BSF officials explained that in Bangladesh, which had a majority Muslim population, the religious faith prohibited consumption of liquor and cough syrups with codeine phosphate were an easy way for people to get high.
During the talks between the border guarding forces of both the countries, the officials of Border Guards Bangladesh had expressed concern over the smuggling. Not only the BSF, but other investigative agencies also keep a track on the smuggling. Earlier on February 3, Kolkata Customs in an operation with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized about 10,000 bottles of Phensedyl headed towards via Bangladesh through Bongaon in North 24 Parganas .
Along with Phensedyl another narcotic that is smuggled in huge quantities along the international border is Yaba tablets. According to investigative agencies, these tablets usually originate in Myanmar and come to India from Bangladesh. Yaba is a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine sold as cheap red or pink pills and works as stimulant to the central nervous system. In 2021, the BSF south Bengal Frontier seized about 14,147 tablets when it was allegedly being smuggled into India. The seizure in 2019 by the same frontier was 53,763 Yaba tablets.
