Bhubaneswar: Police intercepted two drug peddlers and seized brown sugar worth around Rs 2 lakh from them at Baramunda bus stand under Khandagiri police station limits here Friday afternoon. The accused were identified as Jyotirmaya Panda of Old Balasore area and Rajkumar Giri of Tundura panchayat area in Balasore.
Acting on a tip-off, the Khandagiri police arrested the drug peddlers at the bus stand while they were getting off a bus from Balasore. Upon search, police recovered brown sugar packets weighing 50 grams, whose market value stood at around Rs. 2 lakh.
The arrested persons revealed that they brought the contraband items from Jaleshwar to sell it to peddlers in the Capital city. The trade in illegal substances has been going on in the slum areas of the city unabated despite regular raids and seizure of the contraband items.
The brown sugar reportedly sourced from neighboring Bangladesh enters the state via Jaleshwar and Balasore area from where it is transported into various cities of the state, including the Capital city. However, police have not succeeded in stopping the illegal trade.