Kochi: Drug cartels based on the Dark Web, known as the underworld of the internet, are luring struggling pharmaceutical companies to cook drugs, investigative agencies have found. The US Federal Agency, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), has reported the seizure of a million painkiller tablets imported from India by these cartels. State Excise Intelligence had also found that such tablets were being sold in large quantities across the counter in medical stores in Kerala without a doctor’s prescription.

Painkillers with chemical components like Tramadol and Fentanyl are being smuggled out. As per intelligence agencies, small-scale, loss-making pharmaceutical companies lured by the drug cartels are rebranding and manufacturing these medicines.

The interrogation of four people arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the past few days also reaffirms it. As per preliminary information, Edison, a native of Muvattupuzha arrested by the NCB, has also sold similar painkillers through his dark web profile “Ketamelon.’

 The State Excise Intelligence had conducted a raid a year ago after it was found that ‘Tramadol’ was being sold in large quantities through a medical store in Kochi. As per the documents seized at that time, it was found that this medical store alone had purchased 20,910 ‘Tramadol’ tablets, of which 18,535 were sold in just three months. Out of this, 2758 were sold without a doctor's prescription. However, the investigation did not expand to pharma companies, which sold these tablets in large quantities.