Talcher: The Special Task Force officials seized more than 1.1 Kg of brown sugar at Talcher in Angul district and arrested two peddles.
The accused persons have been identified as Rakibul Sekh(43) of Khodabandpur under Farakka police station, Arjunpur in Murshidabad district, West Bengal and Bijay Birbarma(26) of Trinath Colony, under Talcher police station in Angul district.
Based on intelligence input, a raid was conducted by a team of STF, Bhubaneswar with the help of Angul district police at Talcher on the early morning of 22.04.2024 against illegal dealing/possession of Narcotic Drugs and apprehended the two drug peddlers.
During the search, contraband brown sugar (Heroin) weighing more than 1.1 Kg (1120 grams) and other incriminating materials were recovered and seized from their possession. The accused persons could not produce any valid authority in support of the possession of such contraband materials, for which the accused persons have been arrested and are being forwarded to the court of Addl. District Judge cum Spl. Judge, Talcher Dist. Angul.
In this connection, STF PS Case No.18 dated 22.04.2024 U/s 21(c)/29 of NDPS Act 1985 was registered. The investigation is underway.
It is worth mentioning that Brown sugar is a local/ crude version of Heroin (chemical name- Di- acetyl Morphine). In Odisha, it is generally trafficked from Murshidabad- NadiaBurdwan districts of West Bengal via Midnapore- Jaleswar using road or rail routes.
Particularly Lalgola area of Murshidabad is considered to be hub of the Brown sugar production. Locally available/ grown opium and easily available chemicals like Acetic anhydride (locally popular as “Pani” in the Murshidabad area) make the production of Brown sugar easy in this area.
Unlike the Ganja ( which is Voluminous & heavy and takes a lot of space for transportation), Brown sugar is very easy to traffic because of very less in volume and weight and also doesn’t have any specific smell like Ganja. It makes the job of law enforcement agencies difficult.
A special drive against narcotic drugs is continuing. Since 2020, STF has seized more than 76 Kg of Brown Sugar/Heroin, 202 grams of Cocaine and more than 124 quintals of Ganja/Marijuana, Opium more than 14 kg of and arrested more than 197 drug dealers/peddlers including many inter-state traffickers.
