Cyberabad doctor couple booked for selling 'Lethal' Fentanyl drug using Porter app; wife arrested

Hyderabad: A doctor couple living in Cyberabad was booked by the Telangana State Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TSNAB) for purchasing Fentanyl in large quantities and making sales in the city using an online delivery app. Fentanyl is one of the most potent painkillers whose rampant use has created an opioid crisis in the USA and its illegal use has been attributed to widespread deaths due to overdose.

The officials booked Dr Ahsan Mustaffa Khan, an anaesthetist working at Sameer Hospital, and his wife, who has been arrested. The police are waiting for Dr Ahsan to come back from a foreign trip. As many as 53 vials of Fentanyl injections were seized from their house.

The TSNAB received information from a caller who informed them about an unexplained stockpile of a Scheduled Drug at a pharmacy attached to the hospital. Based on the lead, after keeping a tab on the pharmacy, the team found the doctor’s involvement and the drug.

The drug turned out to be Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Usually, it is given to patients who suffer from acute pains during and after surgeries.

Police tailed delivery person to user

Regular watch on the doctor’s house revealed that every evening a delivery person from the Porter app would pick up a parcel from the doctor’s house and deliver it to a house in Cyberabad limits. Suspecting that this might be drugs being transported within the city, the information was shared with CP Cyberabad and an operation was planned. The doctor left for Kuwait in the meantime.

“The Porter vehicle delivered four vials of the drug and the victim who was addicted to the drug would pay Rs 17,500 through Google Pay. We were planning to wait for the doctor to return before the raid but the condition of the addict who was receiving the drug was getting worrisome. Hence, the Cyberabad SOT, Rajendranagar Police and TSNAB decided to launch the operation,” a police official said.

Explaining the details of the raid, the official said, “We stopped the Poter delivery agent and asked him to take us to the place from where he collected the consignment. They took us to a house, which belonged to Dr Ahsan Mustaffa Khan, an anaesthetist working at Sameer Hospital. The consignment was sometimes given by the watchman and sometimes by a woman. The Porter agents were also given cash directly sometimes.”

The house was raided by women SIs, mediators, Cyberabad SOT, Rajendranagar Police and the TSNAB Task Force. They seized 53 vials of Fentanyl injections and Rs 6.08 lakhs in cash made from their illegal trade. The wife of the doctor was arrested on Thursday morning while waiting for the arrival of Dr Ahsan to find out how many more people he had been supplying the drugs to and if other types of drugs were also involved.

The police will be conducting an inventory check at Sameer Hospital with the drug controller department. The drug is so dangerous that even 0.1 gram is enough for a fatal dose. The lethality of the drug can be watched over YouTube, said the officials.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is classified as a Schedule II narcotic under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It is responsible for an epidemic of overdose deaths within the United States. During the last two years, the USA witnessed a distribution of clandestinely manufactured fentanyl, linked to an unprecedented outbreak of thousands of overdoses and deaths.

The current number of overdoses from fentanyl is occurring at an alarming rate. Fentanyl, up to 50 times more potent than heroin, is extremely dangerous to law enforcement and anyone else who may come into contact with it.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate painkiller, is being mixed with heroin to increase its potency, but dealers and buyers may not know exactly what they are selling or ingesting. Many users underestimate the potency of fentanyl. The dosage of fentanyl is a microgram, one-millionth of a gram – similar to just a few granules of table salt. Fentanyl can be lethal and is deadly at even very low doses. Fentanyl and its analogues come in several forms including powder, blotter paper, tablets, and spray.