Balangir: Police busted an international cough syrup smuggling racket with the arrest of two persons on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided trucks on Tureikela road in Balangir district and found huge quantity of syrup bottles loaded in it.
Around 100 cartons packed with over 15,000 cough syrup bottles have been seized from the truck bearing Karnataka number plate, said Balangir SP Nitin Kusalkar.
Police also seized Rs 13,000 cash and some tablets from their possession.
The cough syrup is procured mostly from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and distributed among traders in Western Odisha who in turn send it to Raipur in Madhya Pradesh and Bengaluru in Karnataka.
In this crackdown too, involvement of non-Odia persons is being suspected considering the truck was from Karnataka.
Meanwhile, investigation is on to find out if the cough syrup was being misused as a drug substitute and who all are involved in the trade.
It may be mentioned here that Dextromethorphan (DXM) is a common ingredient found in many cough and cold remedies and some teens who want a cheap, easy high consume it more than the permitted proportions.
