In a major success in the crackdown against narcotics trade in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the Commissionerate police on Tuesday night recovered huge quantities of brown sugar and unaccounted cash from a house in Bhubaneswar.Commissioner of Police Saumendra Priyadarshi on Wednesday told reporters that the Quick Action Team (QAT) and the Saheed Nagar police jointly raided the house in the Kesura area in the city and seized around 550 grams of brown sugar and cash of Rs 34.80 lakh from the house. A youth and a woman were taken into custody in connection with the incident.The estimated market value of the seized contraband is around Rs 1 crore as the contraband is in pure and raw form. Priyadarshi said seizure was a success of the two month-long drive initiated against the illegal trade of narcotics in twin cities by Commissionerate police. An Alto car and two motorcycles were recovered from house during raid. The husband of the arrested woman is a notorious drugs peddler in the area and a hunt has been launched to nab him, Priyadarshi added. The police would thoroughly investigate the financial trail of the narcotics syndicate during the investigation of the case filed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act as such a huge amount of cash has not been ever seized in the State along with the drugs.
He said that those arrested in connection with the case have links with the Jaleswar area in Baleswar district which is considered as the main transit point for the movement of illegal narcotics consignments from bordering West Bengal into Odisha. In the last two months alone, around 5.5 kg of brown sugar has been seized from the twin cities’ jurisdiction, he added.