Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police Friday arrested four persons, including the kingpin of an inter-state cannabis smuggling racket, in Nayagarh district after a month-long intelligence-driven operation, officials said.
The arrested persons have been identified as Durbasa Sahu (46), the alleged mastermind, Subudhi Sahu (40), Arun Kumar Rana (34) and Prakash Khatua (35).
All are residents of Boudh district, police said.
The accused were apprehended while they were travelling in a vehicle near Pichukuli on the Nayagarh-Khurda stretch of NH-57, officials said.
According to a statement by the Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police Crime Branch, which conducted the operation, the arrests were made under ‘Operation Green Clean’, a month-long intelligence-based operation carried out across Boudh, Kandhamal and Sonepur districts to crack down on an inter-state cannabis smuggling syndicate operating from the state with links to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
The breakthrough came after the STF seized 190 kg of cannabis from a cashew plantation near Athagarh in Cuttack district Wednesday.
During investigation, officers found that the delivery agent had been given half of a torn Rs 10 currency note and was instructed to hand over the contraband only to a person carrying the matching half of the note, the statement said.
Despite the seizure, the alleged kingpin had managed to evade arrest.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs Friday morning, multiple STF teams launched a coordinated operation and arrested all four accused, including the alleged mastermind.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Durbasa Sahu headed the cannabis smuggling syndicate operating from Odisha with supply networks extending to several states, an STF official said.
The official said a financial investigation would also be conducted to trace the syndicate’s money trail.
The STF will seek seven days’ police remand of the accused to facilitate custodial interrogation and establish the backward and forward linkages of the inter-state network.
