Officials of Andhra Pradesh’s Elite Anti-Narcotics Group for Law Enforcement (ELITE), the police, Drug Control Administration (DCA), and Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) conducted raids under ‘Operation Garuda’ on medical shops across the State on Friday.

They seized a huge quantity of drugs stored illegally and found multiple violations, including the sale of narcotic drugs without doctors’ prescriptions.

The teams, led by Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta, EAGLE head and IGP Ake Ravi Krishna, DCA DG Ravi, Director Prasad, and vigilance officers, inspected the medicine stocks in medical shops.

“We found that the owners of some drug stores were maintaining illegal stocks, not following regulations, and selling medicines to the public without prescriptions from medical officers,” said Mr. Ravi Krishna.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr Ravi Krishna said: “About 100 teams participated in ‘Operation Garuda.’ We carried out raids across the districts of Krishna, West Godavari, East Godavari, Nellore, Kakinada, NTR and other areas. The teams found many violations.”

Cases have been registered against the violators under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and also under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the EAGLE head said.

DCA officials stated that some drug store owners were selling medicines directly to homes without maintaining proper ledgers thereby violating the rules.