Odisha: Brown sugar worth Rs 3 crore seized in Puri

BHUBANESWAR: Puri police on Saturday seized 3.192kg of brown sugar worth around Rs 3 crore from drug suppliers at Mangalaghat Chhaka in Puri town.
Baselisahi police arrested three youths including a kingpin of this supply racket under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
Based on reliable information, the staff of Baselisahi police station conducted a raid and nabbed three drug suppliers on Saturday morning. They were identified as Susanta Pattanaik, 22, Raj Kishore Sahoo, 24, and Manas Sahoo, 27. They all belong to Kesharpur under Kanas police station in Puri district.
Besides the contraband, the police seized cash of Rs 20,000, four mobile phones, one currency counting machine and a car from the possession of the anti-socials.
Kanwar Vishal Singh, superintendent of police, Puri, said they were getting information regarding movement of drug suppliers in the town for the last three-four days. “After constantly monitoring the movement of the drug suppliers, we got hold of them today morning,” he added.
He said kingpin of this team Susanta will be taken on remand for further questioning. The police will try to get information from the brown sugar supplier about the trade and people involved in this illegal supply chain.
Singh said three teams led by the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) are carrying out raids in the city to bust the drug peddlers and suppliers. “We have made a database of people who are involved in this illegal thing. Idea of this plan is to break the intra-district and inter-district nexus. Most of the local drug peddlers have been arrested. But we are now focussing on the inter-district nexus. We will continue the anti-narcotics drive this year to make the holy town drugs-free,” he added.
So far, Puri police have seized 4.8 kgbrown sugar and arrested 33 peddlers this year. Anti-narcotics helpline WhatsApp number 773584886 is functioning in the district, said the official sources.