Two held with heroin worth ₹13.8 crore in Tripura: Police

Tripura has an 856-km-long international border with Bangladesh and it is still unfenced in several patches due to local disputes centring border alignment and land acquisition

The Tripura police on Thursday, in a major crackdown against illegal drug trade in the state, arrested two drug peddlers and recovered a massive heroin cache worth ₹13.8 crore from them, officials said.

(Representative Photo)

Dhalai district superintendent of police (SP) Avinash Rai said the drug bust had taken place based on a tip-off and preliminary investigation suggests that the drug cache had originated in Mizoram and was headed for Bangladesh.

“We have registered a case and arrested two persons, both residents of Boxanagar in Sepahijala district. Preliminary inputs suggest the drug was headed for Bangladesh. A part of it was meant for local consumption as well. Further investigation is going on,” said the SP. Police have identified the arrested drug peddlers as Mahabul Alam and Piklu Bhowmik.

Ambassa sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Suman Majumder said the drug was recovered from a Mahindra Thar Jeep bearing number TR01 BU 0234 travelling through Ambassa based on the tip-off.

Earlier this month, Tripura Police claimed in a statement that Tripura is in the second position in northeast India in terms of the seizure of narcotics items and first in the region for the destruction of seized drugs.

Tripura has an 856-km-long international border with Bangladesh and it is still unfenced in several patches due to local disputes centring border alignment and land acquisition.

Tripura chief minister Manik Shah has given a free hand to security forces to eradicate drug abuse in the state. A release from the Tripura chief minister’s office earlier this week said that the ‘Nesha Mukt Abhiyan (‘drug-free campaign’)’ in Tripura has succeeded in the detection of narcotics, building awareness against the menace, and detention of drug peddlers