BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch on Friday arrested the alleged kingpin of an inter-state ganja trafficking syndicate along with three associates on NH-16 near Pichukuli in Khurda district.
The prime accused, Durbasa Sahu, was a teacher at a government primary school in Boudh’s Kantamal. Durbasa and his associates, Subudhi Sahu, Arun Rana and Prakash Khatua, all residents of Boudh district, were intercepted while travelling in a car to West Bengal to allegedly execute a supply deal.
Crime Branch sources said Durbasa headed an organised ganja trafficking network operating from Odisha with supply links extending to Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Rajasthan. He was allegedly active in Boudh, Kandhamal and Sonepur districts.
Crime Branch DG Vinaytosh Mishra said Durbasa was wanted in several cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and had been under the STF’s radar for some time.
“His arrest will help trace the backward and forward linkages of the inter-state trafficking network, including financiers, transporters, receivers and other members of the syndicate. The four accused have criminal antecedents and their financial trail will also be examined,” Mishra added.
The STF zeroed in on him after it nabbed a drug peddler working in his gang and seized 190 kg cannabis from him in Athagarh on Wednesday. The agency’s officers also seized a torn Rs 10 denomination note from the drug peddler. He was supposed to hand over the contraband to the receiver possessing the matching half of the same currency note to execute the deal, STF officials said.