Balangir Town Police busted a novel drug trafficking network on Wednesday, seizing 36 kilograms of illegal cannabis (ganja) concealed inside steel cans during a raid at a rented house in the Udayanagar Pada locality.
Two suspects were taken into custody at the scene. The arrestees have been identified as residents of Kesinga and the Puintala police station area, respectively.
Acting on specific intelligence, a team led by Inspector-in-Charge (IIC) Abani Kumar Sahu executed a swift raid on the rented residential premises.
Police discovered that the syndicate sourced the contraband from the dense forest tracts of Boudh and Kandhamal districts. The cannabis was divided into small pouches, stuffed tightly inside the steel cans used to store pickle, and then packed into large storage drums to mask the odour and evade law enforcement detection during inter-state transportation.
Addressing the crackdown, Sadar SDPO Saroj Upadhyay confirmed that Balangir Town Police successfully intercepted the network before the consignment could be dispatched out of the state. Detailed interrogations are currently underway to trace the upstream suppliers and downstream buyers.
The bust highlights the constantly shifting strategies adopted by contraband syndicates operating in Western Odisha. Local law enforcement officers noted that traffickers previously resorted to strapping packages directly onto human couriers using medical adhesive plasters. Later, syndicates exploited e-commerce delivery networks to ship consignments disguised as regional textiles to major metros like Delhi.
