AGARTALA, May 5 (TIWN): Tripura, which is mostly used as a corridor for smuggling pharmaceutical drugs into Bangladesh from Delhi and other parts of the country, is learnt to have grown a safe haven for pharmaceutical drug smuggling in the entire South East Asia. Forget opium, heroin and ganja; Pharmaceutical drugs are the latest rage among drug users, and the Capital has emerged as one of the major hubs of the unlawful trade surrounding them. It was revealed that the illegal trade has prospered mainly because of a huge profit margin involved in the smuggling of such drugs.

Acting on a tip-off, BSF jawans of 159 battalion on Monday late night detained a truck near Churaibari check post.  The truck bearing number (ML02L 6536) loaded with soft drinks and contraband items was coming Guwahati. During the raid BSF jawans seized 12,500 bottles of phensedyl from the truck. The estimated cost of the seizure items is Rs. 12 lakh.

However, the driver of the truck managed to escape from the spot.  Large parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar are emerging as drug consuming zones, and bordering areas of Tripura are contributing to the fast­emerging drugs market. Smugglers based in Tripura are sending these contraband items to Bangladesh virtually by the truckload, hundreds of acres of remote land in West Tripura have become sprawling ganja plantations, the source informed.

According to a source, consumption of alcohol is banned in Muslim majority Bangladesh and thus the demand of alternative means like codines is on the rise in the neighbouring country. Numerous smugglers of both sides of border are engaged in illegal trade of Phensedyl as it gives them huge income.

It is to be mentioned here that the flourishing illegal trade and business along the Indo-Bangladesh border areas of the four northeastern states has been draining out huge amount of wealth from the country. The fence on the Tripura-Bangladesh border being erected to block infiltrators and militants, is likely to hurt a bustling illegal trade that's not just fuelling the local economy and fattening chemists in the border state but spawning a narcotics network.