Guwahati, Dec 14: Amid an intensive crackdown on drug trafficking in Assam in the past year and a half, drug traffickers are now trying to adopt unique ways to hoodwink police in the city which is emerging as transit point for smuggling of contraband items.
This came to light after a special squad of Guwahati police seized as many as 50,000 Yaba tablets, weighing 4.8 kilograms, and 207 grams of heroin from a Manipur-registered ambulance, reportedly from the Hengerabari area here on Tuesday night, thereby thwarting yet another attempt, a unique one though, by drug traffickers to carry out smuggling of contraband items in the region.
Based on specific inputs, the special squad, led by joint commissioner of police (JCP), Guwahati, Partha Sarathi Mahanta and additional DCP Kalyan Pathak, conducted the operation and seized the contraband substances, worth over Rs 14 crore in the market, from the ambulance on Tuesday night.
Official sources said that one person identified as Mirajul Ali, hailing from Rajabala in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya, has been arrested in connection with smuggling of the narcotic substances which were being transported in the ambulance, bearing registration number MN-03C-0037 from Manipur en route to Bangladesh via Meghalaya.
The drugs seizure, which comes amid a slew of similar interceptions of vehicles from the neighbouring northeastern states, is significant because of the ‘unique’ attempt by the narcotics traffickers to use an ambulance, that too in the heart of city.
Generally, such vehicles are intercepted in areas such as Garchuk and Lokhra along the national highway on the city’s outskirts.
On Tuesday night itself, the ISBT outpost of Gorchuk police station busted 20 kilograms of ganja during naka checking on ISBT campus last night. “Two peddlers – Manoj Prasad Shah and Uday Ray, both from Vaishali, Bihar – were arrested in this regard,” police informed on Wednesday.
Just about a fortnight back, a special squad led by the joint commissioner of police, Guwahati, and assisted by Gorchuk Police, had busted a consignment of 500 kg ganja worth around Rs 3.5 crore at Gorchuk.
The ganja was seized from a Nagaland-registered truck (NL-01 AA-3038), which was coming from Tripura. Four smugglers (hailing from Bihar) were arrested and the truck was seized.
Last Saturday, the Assam Police had intercepted two vehicles and seized two lakh Yaba tablets (coming from Myanmar via Mizoram) worth Rs 50 crore in Cachar district. Five persons were arrested.