Narcotics worth over Rs 1 crore recovered in twin operations in Malda, 5 arrested

Malda: In a major crackdown on Sunday, narcotics worth more than Rs 1 crore recovered and five persons were arrested by the police in two operations in Malda.

In a joint operation by the Special Operations Group (SOG), Crime Monitoring Group (CMG) Malda, and Baishnabnagar Police Station led to the seizure of 758 grams of crude heroin near Kaliachak, Malda. Three individuals were arrested, including two from West Bengal and one from Jharkhand.

The arrested include Jadu Mandal (30) and Md. Alauddin Sheikh (28), both from Kaliachak and Md. Shahbaz Ansari (24) from Tata Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. They were caught transporting the heroin from the Farakka region to Kaliachak.

The estimated street value of the recovered heroin is approximately Rs 80 lakh. Police believe the trio is linked to an interstate drug trafficking syndicate that sources crude heroin from Jharkhand and processes it into brown sugar locally.

In another operation, police arrested Rahamat Ali of Kaliachak and Md. Kamal Hussain of Baishnabnagar under the English Bazar police station for possessing 487 grams of brown sugar, valued at as much as Rs 50 lakh, intended for delivery to a dealer in Bihar.