Police on Friday seized brown sugar worth lakhs by intercepting a vehicle in the Jaleswar area of Baleswar district. A person was arrested in this connection. The arrested peddler was identified as Arun Manna of Medinipur in neighbouring West Bengal.Based on a tipoff, a police team set up a trap and intercepted the vehicle near a temple in the morning and carried out a frisking of Manna, who was driving it. The accused was taken into custody after a packet containing 17 gram of brown sugar was found in his possession. The estimated market value of the seized contraband is more than Rs 1.70 lakh.
Further investigation was ongoing to unearth the involvement of others in the inter-State drug smuggling racket. Notably, as Baleswar is a transit point for drugs smuggled into State from West Bengal it is always on radar of Odisha police and specialised units like Special Task Forces (STF) of the Crime Branch.