Smuggling and peddling of brown sugar have allegedly become a booming business at Jaleswar area in Balasore district as the trade of the contraband continues to flourish here in an unabated manner.
In two separate major crackdowns at different places in the block, a joint team of Jaleswar Excise Department and police seized the contraband worth around Rs 55 lakh. As many as four persons have been arrested in this connection.
Acting on an intelligence input, a 20-member team conducted raids at Rajpur village and nabbed a peddler apart from seizing 240 gram of the narcotic substance from his possession.
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Similarly, around 300 grams of the contraband was seized from Jhadeswarpur village and three peddlers were arrested in this connection.
Earlier in August, Jaleswar Excise Department Officials had seized 150 gram of brown sugar worth around Rs 15 lakh at Chalanti Square along NH-16 in the area.
It is worth mentioning that around 4.5 kilogram of the narcotic substance has been seized from the area since last one month.
Since 2020, in various special drives against narcotic drugs, STF has seized more than 38 Kg of brown sugar and more than 84.28 quintals marijuana in the State. So far, more than 100 drug peddlers have been arrested in this connection.
(Edited by Pradeep Singh)