Guwahati, July 11: As part of an ongoing drive against contraband items, a team from the Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police arrested a key drug peddler from Sonapur near here and seized heroin, worth Rs 16 crore, during an operation on Monday.
“The peddler, identified as Mafizul Haque (34) of Mollapara, Garigaon, under Jalukbari police station, was caught after he attempted to escape in a Honda City. He was apprehended with 145 soap boxes containing as many packets of heroin (without cover), weighing two kilograms,” Kalyan Kumar Pathak, additional SP (headquarters), Kamrup, who led the operation, informed reporters here on Tuesday.
“The operation was supervised by DIG, STF, Partha Sarathi Mahanta,” Pathak said.
Notably, the operation was based on information received from sources about Garigaon and Baihata-based narcotics dealers striking a deal either at Amingaon or in the Palashbari area.
“The Manipuri suppliers (who were to deliver the contraband) had even selected and visited the areas for unloading the contraband. However, at the last moment, they decided to offload at Sonapur,” a statement issued here said.
“Accordingly, the vendee who was travelling in a Honda City was traced. The STF team had intercepted the vehicle of the peddler at Sonapur tollgate. However, the peddler tried to escape for which one round had to be fired by the team. He was caught thereafter by the police team,” the statement said
Sources further said necessary legal formalities in connection with the arrest of the drug peddler were being done
Of late, the STF of Assam Police has intensified investigation in its efforts to identify and trace the miscreants involved in inter-state drugs rackets.
A similar operation was conducted in the wee hours of June 25, 2023, by an STF team at Hajo in Kamrup district during which 100 soap cases containing suspected heroin, weighing 1.280 kilograms, were recovered from inside a Toyota Fortuner. A drug peddler, identified as Md Dilwar Hussain, was apprehended from his hideout near the hilly jungle area.
The same morning, in yet another operation carried out at a rented house located in Jalukbari’s Pragjyotish Nagar, two Manipuri persons, namely – Md Abdul Kalam and Md Mustakin, were apprehended with 765 grams of suspected heroin, concealed in 65 packets.
