The UP police’s special task force (STF) claimed to have unearthed a nexus of drug smugglers on Saturday, with the seizure of over 396 kg marijuana and the arrest of two persons in Badaun. The nexus, senior police officials said, was spread across different states, including Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
They said the seized marijuana was smuggled from Naxal-affected areas of Odisha and was meant to be delivered to two drug peddlers of Kasganj for further supply in Delhi, the national capital region and other parts of the state and the country. They said the smugglers were transporting the marijuana to Moradabad via Gorakhpur by hiding it in a special cavity made in a container truck.
On February 8, the UP STF had seized around 469 kg marijuana in Gorakhpur which was smuggled from the Naxal-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh and was meant to be delivered in Moradabad. In that instance, four people had been arrested. STF investigators suspect that both the seizures are linked to the same nexus of smugglers involved in supplying marijuana to Uttar Pradesh through different routes.
According to a STF press note, those arrested in Badaun were identified as two Bareilly residents – Arbaz Ali and Faheem Khan. They were arrested when the container carrying marijuana was intercepted near a petrol pump at Ujjhani, Bijnor. However, one of their accomplices, Zuber, managed to escape when the truck driver slowed it down after spotting the police team.
{{/usCountry}}According to a STF press note, those arrested in Badaun were identified as two Bareilly residents – Arbaz Ali and Faheem Khan. They were arrested when the container carrying marijuana was intercepted near a petrol pump at Ujjhani, Bijnor. However, one of their accomplices, Zuber, managed to escape when the truck driver slowed it down after spotting the police team.
{{/usCountry}}A senior STF official said the arrested people revealed that this seized marijuana was meant to be delivered to two Kasganj-based drug smugglers Sanam Mishra and Sudhakar Sahu. He said the two are suspected to have links with people of the nexus in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh from whom they regularly used to get supply every 3-4 months.
“The dealers in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh purchase marijuana cultivated in different Naxal areas, and later, sell it to different drug-peddling groups. It is further supplied to different groups of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” he emphasised.
The official said that the STF was carrying out further raids in search of Sanam Mishra and Sudhakar Sahu, and the police agencies of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha had also been approached to get more details of the drug smugglers’ network.