BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch and Rourkela Police arrested two persons from Jharkhand and seized 10.508 kg opium worth over `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 them. Investigation has revealed Bitu, Rohit and their associates procured the opium from Rajasthan and sold it to drug peddlers in Odisha and Jharkhand. “A case has been registered and a probe launched into the matter. Efforts are on to identify 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. Opium is cultivated 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 (licencing and regulating authority for legal cultivation of opium) to ascertain the source of procurement of the contraband. As per section 18(b) of NDPS Act, a drug dealer or peddler found in possession of more than 2.5 kg opium can face imprisonment of up to 20 years.
The agency has launched a special drive against 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.