Seven persons were arrested and more than 43kg of marijuana was seized from them by a team from the Bidhannagar commissionerate near the Lake Town footbridge on VIP Road early on Monday, a senior police officer said.
According to the officer, all the men and women who have been arrested were members of an inter-state drug trafficking racket and tasked with distributing marijuana to places across the city.
The cops had received a tip-off that a large consignment of the banned item had been brought into Calcutta and would be transported across the city ahead of the Puja.
"A joint team from the detective department of the Bidhannagar commissionerate and Lake Town police station intercepted the seven accused, who had stashed the marijuana inside their backpacks and were about to leave for their designated destinations," the officer said.
Another senior officer of the commissionerate said they were searching for other members of the gang and tracing the origins of the consignment and how it was brought to Lake Town.