BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police caught three inter-state ganja traffickers and seized around 1.5 quintal of the contraband from them during a raid on national highway-16 here.
While two of them, Mahendra Pal (48) and Sunny Kumar (20), belong to Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, the third Arun Mahato (38) is from Bihar’s Begusarai area.
Sources said acting on a tip-off about the illegal transportation of narcotics drugs, a team of STF officials intercepted the truck on the national highway and during the search found around 148 kg of the contraband concealed inside battery covers loaded in the vehicle.
The accused could not produce any valid authority in support of transportation of the contraband after which they were arrested and the truck seized. During interrogation, the trio revealed that they had loaded the consignment of batteries at Vijayanagaram in Andhra Pradesh and were to transport it to Patna in Bihar. They had halted near Girisola in Berhampur and were waiting for further direction from their higher-ups.
“The mastermind, a native of Berhampur, had procured the contraband from peddlers in the Ganjam-Gajapati border area. He has been identified but is absconding. A team is tracking him and will arrest him soon,” STF officials said.
Over 121 quintals of ganja along with 75 kg of brown sugar, 202 gram of cocaine and 3.63 kg of opium have been seized in the last 20 years, they said.