IN A major breakthrough, a Narcotics Department team nabbed a drug dealer Triveni Singh and unearthed a laboratory being used for processing crude opium into different drugs in Gudamba on Friday.
The team seized 2.6 kg morphine worth Rs 2.6 cr and recovered chemicals and equipment being used in the processing of drugs from a house. Gudamba and Madiaon police station squads were also involved during the operation.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from Deputy Narcotics Commissioner Utkarsh Tiwari’s office raided the house (15, Gudiyanpurwa Nai Basti, Jankipuram house in Gudamba) owned by Triveni Singh. The team found a briefcase containing a consignment of morphine. The drug was concealed in a cavity specially designed in the bottom of the briefcase.
Later in a portion of the house the officials found a laboratory along with chemicals like acetic chloride, sodium carbonate, acetic anhydride and equipment being used to process crude opium into morphine and heroin.
Tiwari said Triveni was engaged in drug trafficking for past several years and was running the racket from his new house for last few years. He said Singh was earlier arrested for carrying 700 gm heroin in 1992 by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Asansol, West Bengal and was awarded 10 years of imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 1 lakh then.
{{/usCountry}}Tiwari said Triveni was engaged in drug trafficking for past several years and was running the racket from his new house for last few years. He said Singh was earlier arrested for carrying 700 gm heroin in 1992 by the Narcotics Control Bureau in Asansol, West Bengal and was awarded 10 years of imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 1 lakh then.
{{/usCountry}}He was released from Presidency Jail, Kolkata in August 2003.
The officials have interrogated Singh and efforts were on to nab other dealers engaged in the trafficking.