The Coimbatore City Police on Thursday arrested five persons and seized methamphetamine and prescription tablets from them.
Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that they sold around 1 lakh tablets of tapentadol, a pain reliever used to treat moderate to acute pain, for prices ranging from ₹60 to ₹300 as against their actual rate.
The arrested have been identified as Praveen Shetty, 36, Arvind Nagar in Dharwad in Karnataka; Coimbatore natives Shahul Hameed, 27, of Kurichi junction; K. Murugan, 27, of Sowripalayam; Akbar Ali, 28, of Sunnambu Kalvai near Karumbukadai; and Riyaz Khan, 24, of Kuniyamuthur.
The police seized 115 tapentadol tablets, three grams of methamphetamine, 10 nitrazepam tablets, syringes and other materials from them.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan said the accused persons from the city procured the drugs from Praveen Shetty. He had been working in a pharmacy, namely Karnataka Medicals, at Hubballi over 10 years, and supplied drugs under the guidance of pharmacy’s owner Vasantha Shetty.
Praveen Shetty was apprehended by the Karumbukadai police when he came to the city on Wednesday. “With the arrest of the supplier, we hope the flow of these drugs to the city will come to a halt,” he said.
In a separate incident, a special team of Coimbatore District Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan on Wednesday arrested six Assam natives, including three women, from Thondamuthur on charges of possessing an opium-based drug.
The arrested have been identified as Ashma Khatun, 40, Zaheera Khatun, 29, her husband Indrish Ali, 29, Khadija Khatun, 37, Ali Hussain, 48, and Rabibul Islam, 24, who worked in an areca nut processing unit at Thondamuthur.
The police seized the narcotic substance worth around ₹2.1 lakh, which was stored in 70 small vials. The police also found out 1,900 empty vials.
