A joint team of the Special Task Force (STF) of the Puri police and the Baliapanda Police busted a drug trading racket by rounding up 5 smugglers from near the Puri by-pass road on Wednesday.
552 grams of brown sugar has been seized from the possession of the conduits, police said.
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The approximate market value of the seized contraband is estimated to be over 25 lakh, police said.
The police have also seized 11 mobile phones, Rs 5000 cash, two ATM cards, one motorcycle and an Innova Car among the other articles from the drug trafficking syndicate.
Sources said all the five members of the drug syndicate are from Khurdha district. They were supplying the contraband to many localities in the pilgrim town.
One of the arrested accused has been identified as Subrat Khuntia who is the mastermind of the drug syndicate that was involved in smuggling drugs to several parts of Puri, police said.
Apart from Subrat, another accused has been identified as Dhirendra Sahu who is a medicine wholesaler.
Police said the person who acted as ‘mediator’ for the syndicate and one carrier of the contraband are among the five arrested accused.
Their names have not been disclosed so far.
Mihir Panda, Additional Superintendent of Police, Puri, said, “Acting on a tip from a source, the team carried out a raid in Puri by-pass areas and successfully arrested five persons of an inter-district drug supplier racket.”
The accused were supplying drugs to the entire city, added the Additional SP.