60 kg opium seized from an essential services truck at Fatehpur district

After continuous tracking and surveillance of an interstate drug trafficking syndicate operating between Jharkhand and Haryana, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Lucknow Zonal Unit, succeeded in the seizure of 60 kilograms of opium from a truck at Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh on April 28.

Acting upon specific inputs the NCB unit launched an operation and succeeded in intercepting a truck at a Police Station in Tharion district, according to an official statement.

The opium was recovered from under the driver's seat. Kurukshetra resident B Singh who is the owner as well as the driver of the truck has been arrested in this connection.

Initial investigation reveals that the opium has been sourced from near Chouparan in Jharkhand and was being transported to Haryana.

According to officials, the drug traffickers are using the free interstate movement of essential commodity vehicles during the lockdown period to aid their trafficking efforts.

The seized truck had carried a load of potato from Haryana to Jharkhand and was on its way back. The NCB has increased vigil across all state borders in view of various instances of drug trafficking.

On April 24, Ahmedabad Zonal Unit in a joint operation with FDA Gujarat effected a huge seizure of 61368 tablets of psychotropic drugs and 840 bottles of Codeine kept unauthorized at a premises at Patan, Gujarat.

NCB has arrested one Patan resident in this connection and further investigation is under progress.

Also, in the intervening night of May 4/5, the Gujarat Zonal Unit acting on specific information intercepted a truck at Kodapura, Surat, and upon intensive search recovered 574 kilograms of Ganja concealed under loads of potatoes.

The consignment had its origin in Odisha and was sourced to Surat. The trafficking network is spread across the states of Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

( With inputs from ANI )