In a significant achievement and in a single largest drug bust till date, Tripura police on Thursday seized Heroin worth of Rs. 15.5 crore in two separate operations from two districts of the state and has also arrested six drug paddlers involved with the transportation of such consignments.

Police sources said that based on specific information, the police personnel from Ambassa police station detained a suspected Mahindra jeep at Kamalpur tri-junction on Thursday morning, which was coming from Mizoram.

During search in the vehicle, police recovered 300 soap cases containing a total of 3.416 kilograms of Heroin and arrested the driver and owner of the vehicle Mahabul Alam (38) of Boxanagar under Kalamchowra police station of Sepahijala district and another one Piklu Bhowmik (38) of Krishna Kishore Nagar of Bishalgarh under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985,

Police added that seized 3.46 kgs Heroin has a market value of nearly Rs 14 crore, this is one of the single largest drug bust in the state till date.

Dhalai district superintendent of police Avinash Rai later told the media that the two drug peddlers arrested with possession of the Heroin consignment are residents of Sepahijala district.

“We are now investigating to find out the source and intended destination of the drug consignment,” the SP informed. He also said as per preliminary investigation, the drug was mainly headed for Bangladesh but a portion of it was also supposed to be sold in Tripura for consumption locally.

He said that the drugs were enroute from Mizoram to Bangladesh via Tripura.

“We intercepted a Mahindra Thar Jeep at a Naka point near Ambassa police station based on a tip-off. The heroin was concealed in 300 cases hidden inside the vehicle in an improvised cloth bag,” said the SP.

He said that preliminary interrogation revealed that both arrested smugglers are habitual drug smugglers and both of them were arrested earlier in Ganganagar and Kamalpur police stations with Heroin on two different occasions. Both accused went to Mizoram on June 26 and they received the consignment of drugs from Thangpong Haokep of Manipur at Chempai-Mizoram-Manipur and Barma border and started their journey towards Tripura on June 28 evening and used the road through Mamit district of Mizoram and moved towards Agartala via Kanchanpur.

Rai also said that both arrested smugglers will be produced before a local court with police remand appeals for interrogation.

In another raid at Agartala city on Thursday evening, police seized 8 cases of Heroin, worth Rs. 1.5 crore from an auto-rickshaw from Buddha Mandir area and arrested four drug paddlers including three from Bihar state.

Giving details of the raid, SP(West) Kiran Kumar said that based on specific information a contingent of police personnel from NCC police station detained a suspected auto-rickshaw from Buddha Mandir area of the city on Thursday evening.

In the course of the search operation, police recovered 8 packets of Heroin hidden in the secret chambers of the auto-rickshaw and arrested four paddlers.

He said that seized Heroin worth Rs. 1.5 crore and arrested smugglers were identified as Raj Kumar, Choto Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar, all from Bihar state and another one Ramananda Roy of Khajurbagar area under NCC police station.

Kiran Kumar said they are investigating to find out the nexus of drug smugglers and source of the seized drug. He also for detailed investigation all arrested, drug paddlers will be produced before a local court on Friday with five days police remand prayers for detailed interrogation.

Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha appreciating the efforts of state police through tweet said “Tripura Police & other security agencies have been continuously working towards the goal of making Tripura drugs-free. In a remarkable achievement today, Dhalai district police during an anti-narcotics drive seized contraband items worth about Rs. 14 crore from a vehicle & arrested two persons in this connection. This is single biggest seizure of drugs in the state.”