BHUBANESWAR: City police on Sunday busted an inter-state racket of drug peddlers and arrested three members after a chase of around 30 km on the national highway. About 300 kg ganja worth Rs 30 lakh was seized from them.
Police said the trio belonged to Jharkhand and identified the gang leader as Ravi Shankar Das. Acting on a tip-off, the Special Crime Unit (SCU) of Commissionerate Police blocked NH-16 on Sunday and intercepted the car loaded with ganja near Pitapalli.
However, Das was travelling in a Ford Endeavour and sped away before police could nab him. The SCU team led by additional DCP Sanjeev Satpathy then chased Das on the highway and caught hold of him near Pahala area on the outskirts of the city.
Police said the trio had kept the contraband in secret chambers underneath the car seats and was supposed to deliver the consignment in Kolkata.
Sources said SCU had got information that the accused would travel on NH-16 about 10 days back but were forced to take forested routes due to stringent checking by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in wake of the recent Naxal related incidents in Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
“The accused are natives of Jharkhand. We will request the court to grant three-day remand for further questioning them. We will contact our counterparts in Jharkhand to elicit more information about them,” said Sanjeeb Panda, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissioner.
Police said the accused were procuring ganja from Malkangiri district and were transporting it to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Two cars including the Ford Endeavour bearing West Bengal registration number were seized from them.