The Kolkata arrested a notorious drug trafficker with a history of gold smuggling wanted in a seizure of a huge quantity of bottles of Codeine Based Cough Syrups (CBCS), officials said on Saturday. As per a release, in one of the most challenging anti-drug operations regarding interception of illicit trafficking of Codeine Based Cough Syrups (CBCS) destined to Bangladesh, NCB has, on November 13, 2024 arrested an International drug trafficker namely Gautam Mondal from Kolkata who was wanted in a seizure of 14,998 bottles of GBCS (brand name Phensedyl) of NCB Kolkata. NCB said that Gautam Mondal is a notorious drug trafficker with a history of Gold smuggling.

"He has 3 known cases of DRI regarding smuggling of huge quantity of Gold worth Crores. He had also clutched his claws upon the illicit trafficking of CBCS routed through West Bengal and destined to Bangladesh. Gautam Mondal is a long-time wanted habitual offender in 3 known NDPS cases of STF West Bengal," the NCB said.

The NCB further said that the seized CBCS in the case of NCB Kolkata were sourced from Uttar Pradesh and illegally diverted from legal channels. "Gautam Mondal is hard core NDPS offender whose modus operandi is to work in several layers. He has trained several of his henchmen to work in pairs for a particular set of duties and keeps on changing them so as to avoid detection by drug law enforcement agencies," NCB further added.

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