7 drug peddlers arrested in interstate area

[Prafulla Kaman]

PASIGHAT, May 30: The police in Dhemaji district of Assam nabbed seven drug peddlers, including a minor, and seized about 50 grams of heroin from their possession during a search operation conducted along the Assam-Arunachal boundary area on Tuesday.
Following a tip-off, the police team, led by Jonai SDPO Rituraj Doley, conducted raids at two grocery shops in Leku Jelom model village in Jonai subdivision of Assam, near the interstate boundary in East Siang district, and recovered the drug along with some packets of other narcotics.
A case under the NDPS Act has been registered at the Jonai police station in this connection, and the drug peddlers were remanded to judicial custody the next day.
During interrogation, the arrested persons admitted their involvement in the drug trade for the last several months, the police said, adding that the peddlers received contraband drugs from some Guwahati-based smugglers and sold them in the boundary areas and different parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Although the police said there is an interstate drug racket targeting the youths of the region, they did not disclose further information in order not to compromise the investigation.
Meanwhile, women activists of Leku Jelom area destroyed several acres of marijuana cultivation near Poba Reserve Forest.
Earlier, too, the police in Jonai and Pasighat nabbed a number of persons involved in the drugs trade from the boundary area, and charged them under the NDPS Act.
The police of both the states have an agreement to conduct joint drives to flush out the drug trade, but their joint efforts have not been very effective so far.