Security agencies in Tripura on Sunday seized three Bangladesh-bound trucks laden with 65,000 bottles of cough syrup estimated to be worth Rs.one crore, officials said here.According to the Customs authorities and Border Security Force (BSF) officials, 65,000 bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup worth Rs.1 crore were concealed under fruit cartons in the trucks with Rajasthan and Punjab registration numbers."Acting on a tip off from its intelligence wing, BSF troopers along with Customs officials intercepted the three trucks at Bodjungnagar area (20km east of Agartala) and during search recovered 65,000 bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup," Customs inspector Sraban Shaurab told reporters here.The drivers of the three trucks and their assistants managed to flee, he said.
Various cough syrups, which are used as substitute for liquor -- particularly by the young people, are frequently smuggled to Bangladesh in huge quantities through the northeastern states and West Bengal. There is a huge demand for them in the neighbouring country.During the past few years, the BSF has intensified its efforts to curb smuggling of drugs to Bangladesh and destroyed seized drugs worth many crores of rupees.Four northeastern states -- Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam -- share a 1,880-km border with Bangladesh -- some of it unfenced and running through dense forests -- making it porous and vulnerable and advantageous to smugglers and militants.