Overview
- DRI officers intercepted an export consignment declared as pregabalin at the Mumbai Air Cargo Complex and found concealed tramadol and tapentadol tablets, with the initial interception occurring on August 2.
- Officials seized 100,000 tramadol hydrochloride tablets and 100,000 tapentadol tablets, weighing about 45 kg in total, after a week-long intelligence-led probe by the DRI’s Mumbai zonal unit.
- Searches at an Ambernath manufacturing site recovered tablet-compression machinery and raw materials that investigators say were used in the clandestine production of the tramadol tablets.
- Three people were arrested — the exporter/IEC holder, a supplier-cum-coordinator and the alleged clandestine manufacturer — and DRI investigators are working to trace wider supply links and any other consignments.
- The case raises regulatory and public-health concerns because tramadol is a scheduled psychotropic under the NDPS Act and tapentadol is controlled under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which could prompt legal action and possible international follow-up.