DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Police on Sunday claimed to have busted an inter-state pharmaceutical drug cartel with the arrest of a Haryana resident after seizing more than 2.5 lakh pharma opioids from his possession. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Anti-Gangster Task Force-cum-Ropar Range, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the arrested accused has been identified as Ranjit Goswami of Batra Colony in Sonipat, Haryana. "Police have recovered 2,37,000 tablets of alprazolam and 14,400 of the pyeevon spas capsules from his car which he was smuggling from Haryana," an official statement quoted Bhullar as saying. This is the third such inter-state pharmaceutical drug racket busted by the Fatehgarh Sahib district Police in less than three months, he said. Earlier, Fatehgarh Sahib Police had recovered as many as 7 lakh tablets/capsules of pharma opioids on July 14, 2022, while, 1.17 lakh tablets/capsules of pharma opioids were recovered on September 4, he said. The DIG said, acting on a tip-off, police teams from Crime Investigation Agency, Sirhind and Khamano Police Station intercepted a car bearing a Haryana registration number at Khamano, which was being driven by the accused. During checking, police teams seized a huge quantity of pharma opioids, he said. SSP Fatehgarh Sahib Ravjot Grewal said during preliminary investigations, it has come to light that the arrested accused is into transport business in Delhi and Amritsar. "The accused has confessed that he has been supplying pharma opioids in Punjab for the last few years and most of his customers are in Moga and Ludhiana," she said. She said police have got three days remand of the accused after producing him in the court. Meanwhile, a FIR has been registered under the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at Fatehgarh Sahib Police Station. (editor@dailyworld.in)