Texas Sought Execution Drugs from Company Raided by India for Illegal Drug Sales

A BuzzFeed News inves­ti­ga­tion reports that Texas sought to import exe­cu­tion drugs from a sup­pli­er in India that the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau shut down for alleged­ly sell­ing psy­chotrop­ic drugs and opi­oids ille­gal­ly to cus­tomers in the United States and Europe. 

A Drug Enforcement Agency report from January 2015, obtained by BuzzFeed, indi­cates that Texas was in con­tact with an Indian drug sup­pli­er, Provizer Pharma, to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs, just weeks before Indian nar­cotics con­trol agents raid­ed Provizer Pharma for the ille­gal sale of gener­ic Xanax, gener­ic Ritalin, opi­ods, and oth­er drugs. Hari Om Gandhi, a region­al direc­tor with the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau, said the drugs — which Indian court doc­u­ments allege were being ille­gal­ly sold online — are used med­ical­ly ​“for reliev­ing stress … [, but] are also used as par­ty drugs, as it stimulates senses.” 

Five Provizer Pharma part­ners were arrest­ed and detained for nine months for vio­lat­ing India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the com­pa­ny’s facil­i­ty was shut down after what the Narcotics Control Bureau described as ​“a sig­nif­i­cant sezure” of illegal drugs. 

The DEA inves­tiga­tive report states that Texas ​“will be import­ing” 500 to 1,000 grams of sodi­um thiopen­tal, which it ​“will be import­ing from the fol­low­ing sup­pli­er: Provizer Pharma.” The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has issued a state­ment say­ing that the state has nev­er ​“engaged in any trans­ac­tion” with Provizer Pharma. 

Sodium thiopen­tal was wide­ly used in exe­cu­tions before its U.S. man­u­fac­tur­er halt­ed pro­duc­tion because it object­ed to the use of its med­i­cine in exe­cu­tions. Shortly after the deal with Provizer Pharma fell through, Texas pur­chased sodi­um thiopen­tal from anoth­er Indian com­pa­ny, Harris Pharma, but the ship­ment was halt­ed by the Food and Drug Administration. Texas recent­ly filed suit against the FDA to have the drug ship­ment released, but the FDA is under a fed­er­al court order to block impor­ta­tion of sodium thiopental.