Home / Crime and Justice / Varanasi Supplier Jaiswal Accused of $100M Cough Syrup Scam
Varanasi Supplier Jaiswal Accused of $100M Cough Syrup Scam
17 Nov
Summary
- Racket supplied 89 lakh bottles of codeine-based cough syrup worth $100M
- Lynchpin Shubham Jaiswal and his father led the operation
- 28 out of 31 firms involved in the racket were booked
On November 17, 2025, authorities in Varanasi, India uncovered a massive racket involving the illegal sale of codeine-based cough syrup. The operation, led by Shubham Jaiswal and his father, had been running for the past two years, supplying an estimated 89 lakh bottles of the syrup worth $100 million across India and even smuggling to Bangladesh and Gulf countries.
Following a three-day special operation, the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (UPFSDA) and local police lodged FIRs against 28 out of 31 firms involved in the racket. The investigation revealed that Jaiswal, who entered the medicine business a few years ago, had set up a network of shell companies to facilitate the illegal sale and distribution of the controlled substance.
The crackdown on this racket began in October when Sonbhadra police seized over 1.19 lakh bottles of the banned syrup worth $3.5 million from container trucks. This led to further investigations that uncovered the full scale of Jaiswal's operation, which also involved firms in Jharkhand and Ghaziabad. Authorities are now exploring options to issue a lookout notice against the absconding Jaiswal, whose sudden wealth and political ambitions had drawn suspicion earlier.
