Assam police have seized a cache of narcotics estimated at Rs 20 crore from a truck near the Bengal-Assam border on Saturday.
Sources said a team from Gossaigaon police station intercepted the truck, which was heading towards Bengal from Imphal, at Shimultapu near the interstate border.
“We searched the truck and found a secret chamber next to the fuel tank of the vehicle. Altogether, 3.1 kilos of brown sugar and 85 kilos of opium were found concealed there. The cost of the seized item is around Rs 20 crore,” said a police officer.
Brown sugar is a derivative of heroin.
“Mohanlal, the truck driver, has been arrested and the vehicle has been seized. The narcotic was supposed to be taken to Jodhpur in Rajasthan,” the officer added.
“We are conducting raids at the interstate borders to prevent smuggling of narcotics,” said Pratik Thube, SP, Kokrajhar.
In another incident, a person was arrested for allegedly smuggling timber by a team of the state forest department at Chilapata in Alipurduar district on Saturday.
Sukhdeb Barman, a resident of Chakchaka in the neighbouring Cooch Behar district, was intercepted while he was carrying illegal timber lobs in a pick-up van.
“Barman was wearing the uniform of a civic volunteer to dupe our men and the police. When he was stopped and interrogated, he admitted that he is not a civic volunteer,” said Deepak M, the divisional forest officer of Jaldapara wildlife division.
