Blanket seller held for smuggling drugs, 103kg ganja seized

Ghaziabad: A 27-year-old drug smuggler allegedly carrying 103 kg of ganja and Rs 4 lakh cash was arrested from Ghaziabad’s Masuri area on Sunday night.
Police said the accused Intazar, a resident of Meerut, was a blanket seller and would frequently visit Odisha’s Malkangiri district for business purpose. It was there that he came in contact with a drug dealer three months ago and allegedly started smuggling ganja to Ghaziabad.
Talking about his modus operandi, SP (rural) Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said, Intazar would make several small packets of the consignment and hide them inside bundles of blankets to avoid detection. He mostly smuggled the consignment through Ghaziabad-bound trains.
During questioning, Intazar told police that in Ghaziabad he handed over the narcotics to his associate, Irfan, who in turn would sell it to various sellers. Irfan and a third accomplice Neeraj, both from Ghaziabad, are still absconding.
“Intazar bought ganja from a dealer in Odisha at a rate of Rs 1,400/kg and then sold it in Meerut for Rs 6,000/kg and at Rs 10,000/kg in Delhi,” said Jadaun.
Notably, the SP had launched ‘operation NARCOS’ in March this year to bust gangs involved in drug peddling in the district’s outskirt areas. According to him, so far 50 persons have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act from the rural areas in the past three months. Intazar’s arrest has also come under the same operation, said the police officer. This was the second such arrest to be made by Ghaziabad police in a short span of time. Three persons, including a woman, were arrested on June 3 from Kotwali area of the city for smuggling 100 kg of ganja worth Rs 10 lakh from Chhattisgarh. Police have also seized a Tata Safari from their possession, which was modified to hide the contraband inside the doors and below the seats.
Meanwhile, two more drug peddlers were arrested from Kotwali area with 1.5 kg of ganja. The accused, Rama and Shyama, are brothers and each has more than five cases of robbery and drug selling cases registered against them in Ghaziabad, said police.