In a major breakthrough, Excise Department officials arrested a notorious young drug dealer and seized a huge quantity of brown sugar at Khordha on Tuesday.
Sources said on a tipoff, excise sleuths nabbed Somnath Bhujabal from Thengahata and seized brown sugar estimated to cost more than Rs20 lakh from his possession.
He was forwarded to court. Police also seized cash of Rs2 lakh, a country-made mouser and two rounds of live ammunition from his possession.
Police suspected that the accused was selling the contraband after procuring it from Jaleswar in Baleswar district. The officials said the contraband was being procured from Bangladesh or Pakistan and then smuggled into Odisha from West Bengal.
Notably, last week, a woman drug peddler had been arrested with brown sugar worth Rs1 crore from Arada Bazaar in Masjid lane in Baleswar town after she arrived by train from Kolkata.
Though police and the Excise Department have intensified their crackdown on drug peddling over the last few weeks, the illegal business continues to flourish in the State.