Assam: 2 Held with 1.8 Kg Heroin As State Police Continues Its Crackdown on Drug Peddlers – News18

Two people were apprehended after 1.8 kg of heroin was seized from their possession by the police on Tuesday in Assam’s Saraighat.

The accused have been identified as Sonu Ali of Garigaon and Arjun Basfore of Jalukbari were nabbed by a team led by Additional STF Kalyan Pathak under the supervision of Partha Mahanta DIG, STF in North Guwahati.

Northeast India, which shares a long stretch of border with neighbouring Myanmar, has often been used by drug peddlers as transit to smuggle drugs from Myanmar to India. A huge amount of drugs has been seized by Assam police in Guwahati in recent times.

The DIG of Special Task Force state said the accused was caught after information was received regarding a vehicle carrying narcotics from Manipur.

“The same was intercepted at Saraighat but the peddlers getting wind of the police presence fled towards Changsari. In order to subdue the occupants, two rounds were fired. The vehicle was searched and indicated the presence of a hidden chamber which was cut open and disclosed the presence of 1 kg 800 gms heroin. The same was seized,” the official said.

On November 24, drugs worth Rs 7.25 crore were seized in Assam. On November 19, drugs with Rs 3 crore was seized in Guwahati where six people including five Manipuri drug peddlers were arrested. On September 12, six were arrested in Guwahati with narcotic substance worth Rs 18 crore. The police said the consignment came from Manipur through Mizoram, the Barak Valley region of Assam, and was headed for West Bengal. These are just few latest records of the arrests. The Assam police has been continuously hunting down the drug peddlers under its mission “War Against Drugs”.

A very highly placed source in Assam Police told CNN-NEWS 18, “There are four routes through which peddlers try to smuggle drugs to India. These routes involve four northeastern states- Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland. Peddlers smuggle in the drugs through the borders, but they cannot take it through without crossing Guwahati in Assam, though they take it to various parts of the country. The price of the narcotic substance increases as it crosses Guwahati and gets into other parts of the country. We have our sources in the borders who inform us whenever there is something suspicious, we chase it when they enter Guwahati. Mostly the drugs are heroin, Yaba tablets and soaps amongst others.”