Excise department sleuths seized over 450 grams of brown sugar, believed to be worth nearly Rs 50 lakh in the gray market, after intercepting a car on the Mahanadi bridge near Gandarpur here on Tuesday evening.
The excise flying squad also arrested two persons in this connection and seized the vehicle in which they were peddling the contraband. Sources in the department said the arrested included a former tax collector of the Khordha Municipality.
Sources further informed that the drug peddlers were carrying the narcotic substances in the vehicle to be sold in Bhubaneswar and nearby areas after collecting them from various locations bordering West Bengal in Baleswar district.
Notably, the squad had also seized around 280 grams of brown sugar, worth over Rs 30 lakh after raiding two locations in the city in December last year. Two persons were also arrested in this connection last month. The contraband was apparently collected from Muslim-dominated areas of Baleswar, sources said.
