Narcotic consumption is on the rise alarmingly in the State and this was proven from the recent drug hauls by police at different places. In an example, in a major drugs bust, the Commissionerate police on Sunday seized over 1 kg of brown sugar and arrested six persons in Cuttack on Monday.
A joint team of the Special Squad and Lalbag police nabbed the drug peddlers and seized the contraband weighing 1.195 kg The market value of the seized contraband was estimated to be more than Rs 1 crore. “On a tipoff, the Lalbag police carried out raids and arrested six persons. The raiding team seized brown sugar weighing 1.195 kg from them. The crackdown was conducted under the direct supervision of ACP Ajay Das,” Commissioner of Police Saumendra Priyadarshi said on Monday. Four of the arrested persons are natives of Jagatsinghpur district while two others are from Cutttack and Puri, respectively," he added. The traffickers who have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act would be forwarded to court today, Priyadarshi said. He further said several criminal cases, apart from drug peddling, are pending against the accused at different police stations in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and other parts of the State. According to police, the accused would procure the contraband from Jaleswar and Baleswar areas and peddle them in the coastal and interior parts of the State. The police had successfully seized over six kg of brown sugar including 4.280 kg from Cuttack only in the last five months, the Commissioner said.
The Commissionerate police aim to make the twin cities drug-free, he said. The drug peddlers usually target the young masses in the twin cities.
Taking advantage of the lockdown, they tried to expand their network in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. However, the Special Squad of the Commissionerate police kept an eye on their activities and foiled their plans multiple times, the Commissioner said.