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In continuance with their crackdown against the notorious drug mafia, sleuths of the Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar Police Commissionerate apprehended an auto-rickshaw driver who had doubled up as a drug peddler in Mira Road.

Acting on a specific tip-off, a team from the Naya Nagar police station, led by Senior Police Inspector Kailash Barve and PSI Suhel Pathan, laid a trap and intercepted a suspiciously moving auto-rickshaw on the road leading to the overbridge in Bhayandar (East).

Upon searching the vehicle, the police team found a plastic bag stuffed with 455 grams of charas (cannabis), following which the auto-driver, who identified himself as one Vijaybahadur Rammanohar Yadav (34) was taken into custody.

A resident of Peela Bangla area of Bandra, Vijaybahadur was the lone occupant in the auto-rickshaw. The police arrested Vijaybahadur and booked them under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

The auto-rickshaw was impounded and the police are trying to track its owner.

According to the police, the value of the seized drugs is valued at more than Rs.1.27 lakh in the international market. Not ruling out the involvement of the accused in an interstate drug-peddling racket, the police are trying to ascertain the source and destination of the consignment to break the supply chain. PSI Milind Borse is conducting further investigations into the case.

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