Three persons arrested with 60,000 Yaba tablets

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police nabbed three persons with huge quantities of amphetamines, commonly known as 'Yaba', in tablet form. According to police, on Sunday morning, STF officials were tipped off that Md Ali Ahmed, a drug peddler from Thoubal in Manipur was in Kolkata. The police came to know that the man was about to meet some people in and around Chingrihata.

A STF team reached Canal South Road near Chingrihata crossing and intercepted three persons. During the search, the police found 60,000 Yaba tablets weighing about 6 kg from Ahmed.

Two persons — Baki Billa Gazi of Bashirhat and Akhtarul Gazi of Swarupnagar in North 24-Parganas — who were about to cut the deal with him, were also detained. Baki Billa, Akhtarul and Md Ali were taken to STF police station in Lalbazar. Later, the trio was arrested.

Sources informed that Ahmed was about to hand over the Yaba tablets to Baki Billa and Akhtarul, which were to be smuggled to Bangladesh. It is suspected that Ahmed had procured the tablets from Indo-Myanmar border and brought it to Kolkata.

A few months ago, the Special Task Force had nabbed several drug peddlers and narcotic dealers with Yaba and other banned drugs worth more than Rs 12 crore. On Saturday, Malda District Police seized 2,000 bottles of Phensedyl from Mistripara village adjacent to Indo-Bangla border.

Two persons were arrested in this connection. During the investigation, it was found that Phensedyl bottles were being smuggled to Bangladesh.

Drug peddlers and narcotic dealers are using Kolkata as a corridor to smuggle such products to Bangladesh. Therefore, a market, to carry out illegal trade of drugs and narcotics, has emerged in the city.

In another incident, two persons were arrested with 3.5 litres of banned drug Codeine Phosphate mixture late on Sunday night from near Ganga-Joara bridge at Narendrapur.