Bhubaneswar, Apr 23 (FN Bureau) The STF of Odisha police has apprehended two drug peddlers, including one interstate drug peddler, during a raid and recovered contraband brown sugar (Heroin) weighing more than 1.1 Kg from their possession. STF sources on Tuesday said, acting on the basis of intelligence input, a raid was conducted by a team of STF, Bhubaneswar with the help of Angul district police at Talcher on the early morning of April 22 last. During the raid, two drug peddlers including one interstate drug peddler identified as Rakibul Sekh from West Bengal and Bijay Birbarma from Talcher in Angul district of Odisha were arrested.During the search operation, contraband brown sugar (Heroin) weighing more than 1.1 Kg (1120 gram) and other incriminating materials were recovered and seized from their possession. The accused persons were later arrested as they could not produce any valid authority in support of possession of such contraband materials. They have been forwarded to the court of Addl. District Judge cum Spl. Judge Talcher.
The STF has registered a case against them under section 21(c)/29 of NDPS Act 1985. STF sources said in Odisha, the brown sugar is generally trafficked from Murshidabad- Nadia- Burdwan districts of West Bengal via Midnapore- Jaleswar using road or rail route. The Lalgola area of Murshidabad is considered to be hub of the Brown sugar production. Locally available/ grown opium and easily available chemicals like Acetic anhydride (locally popular as “Pani” in Murshidabad area) makes production of Brown sugar easy in this area.Unlike the Ganja ( which is Voluminous & heavy and takes lot of space for transportation),Brown sugar is very easy for trafficking because of very less in volume and weight and also doesn’t have any specific smell like Ganja. Since 2020, STF has seized more than 76 Kg of Brown Sugar/Heroin, 202 Gram Cocaine and more than 124 quintals of Ganja/Marijuana, Opium more than 14 kg and arrested more than 197 drug dealers/peddlers including many inter-state traffickers.