Balasore: In a major breakthrough, excise officials arrested a drug dealer and seized brown sugar worth Rs 1 crore from him here Sunday. Crackdown on drug peddling has been intensified over the last few weeks particularly after a video explicitly showing drug dealing went viral on social media. The racket spreads from Balasore to Bangladesh via Kolkata.
According to reports, intelligence sleuths of the Central excise had gathered information about the drug trade in Arad bazaar area here. The officials drew up a plan and 15 of them masqueraded as rickshaw pullers and rag pickers. They kept vigil on main drug trader Sheikh Rafique (38), son of Sheikh Khurshid.
Rafique had gone to Howrah in West Bengal Saturday to procure a fresh consignment of the contraband. The excise officials pounced upon him while he was on way home carrying the 930 gm of brown sugar Sunday. According to excise officials, the seized stuff was approximately valued at Rs 1 crore.
Rafique admitted that he along with his wife, elder brother and mother has been running the drug racket for the last 10 to 12 years. He also revealed that his elder brother has gone to Lal Gola in Bangladesh to procure drugs. Rafique said as his wife and mother stay with him, excise officials fail to conduct raids.
Excise department has registered a case 29/2017-18 under section 21(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The accused was produced in a court, which sent him to jail. Acting on intelligence input, excise commissioner Prashant Kumar Senapati had asked deputy commissioner Mrunal Kant Das to conduct raids.
A team comprising excise official Amarendra Kumar Jena, inspector Baijayanti Panda, sub-inspector of Balasore police station Ajay Kumar Behera, ASI Niranjan Behera, constables Kishore Kumar Rout, Chandra Mohan Das, Ranjan Patra and Anupama Das conducted a raid.
Now, excise officials have stated investigation into whether Rafique has the capacity to deal drugs worth Rs 1 crore or he is pushed by a godfather. The frequency of Rafique’s elder bother’s visit to Bangladesh in a month and his family’s links with other illegal activities are also being probed into, excise officials said.
Last month, Orissa Post had carried a report on the increase in drug peddling in Balasore. A local youth had uploaded a video on social media exposing the modus operandi of drug peddlers. He had received a death threat.
The video showed that drug peddling has been rampant in a street near Arad bazaar mosque, Ananda bazaar, Galapola, Balighat and Remuna Golei. The street near the mosque has been the main hub of drug business while some women were operating the trade.
It was learnt that drug is being trafficked from Bangladesh via Jaleswar and sent to various places of Balasore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri amid allegation of police inaction. PNN
