SHILLONG: Police have arrested eight persons, including three females in connection with the drugs haul in West Jaintia Hills on Friday night.
West Jaintia Hills SP Vivek Syiem said on Saturday that following intelligence inputs that a group of drug traffickers were travelling from Guwahati towards Silchar on Friday night and nearing the district, the Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) West Jaintia Hills led by DSP Macjoel Marngar and SI Arki Wahlang in-charge ANTF were dispatched to intercept the vehicles.
The team set up a check point on the NH44 at Ialong near Pine Breeze Hotel when at around 10:20 pm , two Scorpio vehicles reached the check point, where they were duly detained and searched .
During the search, a total of 67 identical tightly wrapped coloured plastic packets containing within each 10 blue heat- sealed packets; each blue heat -sealed packet contained 100 pink colour tablets suspected to be psychotropic drugs marked with the letter ‘WY’ on the tablet, were recovered and seized from the vehicles.
The total number of tablets seized is 67,000 being commercial quantity of psychotropic substance.
Two Scorpios, eleven mobile phones, six SIM cards and Rs. 2,96,065 were also seized.
The search was conducted in the presence of independent witnesses including executive magistrate West Jaintia Hills, B Blah.
The drug traffickers, M. Sianzathang Zou ( 35), Chinsunlam Zou ( 27), Mangminthang Zou (29), Pawhawi Zou (31), Thangboi Zou ( 27) and women identified as Niangnu Zou (39) , Ngehnu Zou (18) and another female juvenile of 16 years old were detained.
From preliminary questioning, it was ascertained that the suspected narcotic had been smuggled from Myanmar via Moreh to be sold to vendors in other states.
The psychotropic drug is suspected to be Meta Amphetamine estimated to cost Rs 1.34 crore in the open market.
The SP said that it appears that there is an elaborate nexus for the supply of narcotics from Myanmar into the Northeast for which several youths from the region are affected.
It was also found that several drug users from the district procure drugs from Cachar for which this consignment was headed.
A case has been registered in Jowai police station to ascertain other players in this supply chain of narcotics.
