BHUBANESWAR: Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch and Rourkela Police arrested two Jharkhand natives and seized 10.508 kg opium worth about `50 lakh from them.
Acting on a tip-off, the police conducted a raid at Panposh in Sundargarh on Thursday and arrested Bitu Singh Munda and Rohit Munda, both natives of Jharkhand's Khunti district. During searches, the contraband was seized from the accused.
Investigation revealed Bitu, Rohit and their associates were procuring opium from Rajasthan and then selling the contraband to drug peddlers in Odisha and Jharkhand. "A case has been registered and a probe has been launched into the matter. Efforts are on to identify the other members of the racket," said STF IG, Jai Narayan Pankaj.
India is one of the few countries where legal cultivation of opium is allowed for medicinal purposes. The cultivation is carried out in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. STF officers suspect the seized opium was illegally diverted from the legal cultivation farms in Madhya Pradesh.
Sources said the agency will contact Madhya Pradesh Police and Central Bureau of Narcotics in Gwalior (licensing and regulating authority for legal cultivation of opium) to ascertain the source of procurement of the contraband. As per section 18(b) of the NDPS Act, drug dealer or peddler found in possession of more than 2.5 kg opium can face imprisonment up to 20 years.
The agency has launched a special drive against the sale of narcotic drugs in Odisha since 2020. So far, STF has seized more than 75 kg brown sugar/heroin, 202 gm cocaine, 123 quintal ganja/marijuana and 14 kg opium. More than 193 drug dealers/peddlers have also been arrested.