Jayapur/Koraput: Jayapur Town police arrested five persons, including a woman, and seized 403.1 grams of brown sugar worth an estimated Rs 45 lakh during a raid on an alleged drug trafficking operation near Canal Road here, police said Sunday.
The arrested persons were identified as Ram Chhatriya, 35, of Gopabandhu Nagar in Jayapur, Prakash Kumar Chhualsingh, 52, Sheikh Ali, 26, and Satyapriya Pattnaik, 49, all from Khurda, Alok Chetty, 29, of Koraput, and a woman from Nayagada.
Police said the raid was conducted Saturday night after they received information about brown sugar being sold near Canal Road while a patrol team was in the area.
Two persons were allegedly found consuming drugs at the spot. Shortly afterwards, a car arrived and police detained six of the seven persons present. One person managed to flee.
During a search of the car, police recovered 3,700 small pouches of brown sugar and 11 packets containing 10 grams each, police said.
Police also seized 100 pouches from Ram, identified as a receiver from Jayapur, and around 110 grams of brown sugar from Sheikh Ali, who had arrived in the car.
The total seizure was 403.1 grams, police said.
A car, Rs 20,000 in cash, eight mobile phones and weapons were also seized, police said. Jayapur SDPO Archita Mittal said the accused had previous cases registered against them under the NDPS Act.
The arrested persons were produced in court, police said.
Jayapur Town police inspector Ullas Chandra Rout and sub-inspector Siddhant Behera were present at the press conference.