Drug trade: Crackdown continues but no big fish yet in Rourkela police net
ROURKELA: Amid a spurt in sale of brown sugar and ganja in the steel city, Rourkela police has intensified enforcement against drug peddling but has not been able to nab the major suppliers of the contraband so far.
In recent times, Rourkela is being increasingly used as a transit hub for smuggling of huge amounts of ganja. Besides, the city has become a flourishing market of brown sugar.
Sources said despite the crackdown on illegal sale of contraband, the unique modus operandi of drug peddlers is making the task of police more challenging. It has come to the fore that petty criminals, especially from a particular community, are largely involved in peddling small quantities of drugs to earn fast bucks. Detecting and arresting these small fries is costing time and efforts of the local police with little gain.
On March 26, police arrested four youths with criminal antecedents and seized 33.35 gram of heroin from them. Their arrest led to the disclosure about a Uditnagar-based drug peddling gang which had formed a WhatsApp group to target vulnerable youths and students including adolescent schoolchildren.
During interrogation, most of the petty drug peddlers revealed that they procured brown sugar worth Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand at one go and sell it at Rourkela market for more than double the price. They also adulterate the contraband with ash to get extra profit. Sources said the local drug peddlers prefer small amounts as arrest with larger quantity would attract more severe punishment under the NDPS Act.
With the intention of busting the local drug network, Rourkela police had conducted a large-scale operation at Meenapada along Mahtab Road here in the wee hours of January 3. However, the cops failed to get the desired result.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said so far, police have not been able to detect any major local supplier of brown sugar despite investigation. The ground intelligence of police has increased manifold and the ongoing crackdown is based on intelligence inputs.
He said enforcement has substantially increased in the past six months with registration of about 10 NDPS cases from October to December 2024, which increased to 14 cases between January and March 2025. More than 100 kg of ganja and about 85 gram of brown sugar were recovered in the past three months. Police have also initiated process to attach properties of at least four accused persons involved in NDPS cases, the SP added.