Silchar: Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) in collaboration with the local police on Wednesday seized 220,000 Yaba tablets from a vehicle in Assam’s Karimganj district and arrested three suspected drug peddlers, officials said.
Police said the consignment was coming from Mizoram and the arrested accused were residents of Tripura.
The operation was headed by the Assam Inspector General (IG) of Police (STF) Partha Sarathi Mahanta. He said they received information about the transport of drugs from their intelligence source.
“Based on the information, we launched an operation along with the Karimganj police and we managed to identify the vehicle at Badarpur,” he said.
Mahanta said the police team after intercepting the Bolero car searched it thoroughly and found the boxes filled with Yaba tablets in a secret chamber under the backlights.
“Our team of experts confirmed that these are Yaba tablets and the cost of it in the domestic markets will be Rs.66 crore,” he said.
The IG said the price of Yaba tablets differs in places. “There are illegal markets in mainland India and neighbouring countries. The drug peddlers get the maximum price after taking the narcotics to the destination. In some markets, the price of each tablet goes up to Rs.4000,” he added.
Karimganj superintendent of police (SP) Partha Pratim Das said the vehicle, which was carrying the drugs, did not have a registration number. “The drug peddlers keep using such tricks but we have a strong network to identify them,” he said.
The arrested persons have been identified as Khairul Hussain (the driver), Mamon Miya and Nabir Hussain. All of them are residents of Tripura and they used to work in different parts of Mizoram, according to the police.
Police said that they have been arrested under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, according to the police.
“We are interrogating them and further investigation is going on. As per the initial findings, the consignment came from Mizoram’s Champhai area. We are trying to establish the background and forward links to identify the actual suppliers,” officials said.
