Opium masked as ‘essentials’ seized

NEW DELHI: The Narcotics Control Bureau on Saturday arrested three alleged smugglers, including the kingpin of a cartel, and seized 31 kg of opium worth several crores in the international market.
The opium was concealed inside the hood of a truck, which was being plied on the pretext of carrying essential commodities, KPS Malhotra, NCB zonal director, said.
NCB sleuths acted on an intelligence input indicating a truck carrying narcotics was coming from Jharkhand. The truck, bearing Punjab registration, was intercepted and the opium wrapped in tarpaulin sheet was seized.
The accused were identified as P Singh and H Singh, both from Haryana, and S Das of Punjab. “It was found that the consignment belonged to a notorious inter-state drug trafficker named Manoj Dangi of Jharkhand. A team was sent to Chhatra district and Danga was apprehended,” Malhotra added.
NCB has launched a concentrated drive against opium smuggling and have seized around 127 kg of the drug in the last five months, majorly disrupting the supply chain across the country.
Investigation has revealed that the supply of opium from Jharkhand is destined to various places in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The illicit production of opium is mainly concentrated in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2019, law enforcement agencies destroyed over 10,000 hectares of illicit opium cultivation. As per the drug abuse survey, there are 2.3 crore opioid users in India.