The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Crime Branch police on Saturday arrested the kingpin of an interstate drug peddling racket from the Balasore township area.
The arrested drug peddler identified as Seikh Jamsed Alli from Aradabazar Masjidgali locality in Balasore district Headquarters Township.
Earlier the STF had nabbed three of his accomplices and had seized brown sugar weighing 2.402 kilograms valued at around Rs 2.5 crore.
The arrested mastermind of the drug peddling racket is being interrogated. His nexus with larger drug rackets based outside the State has been established, said STF officials.
The banned substances are making their way to Odisha from Murshidabad in West Bengal. Balasore district bordering Bengal has become the gateway to drug peddling networks in the State. The source point of the brown sugar trade in the State owes its origin to Murshidabad. The organized rackets of drug peddlers based in Balasore have spread their network to major urban centres- Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Puri- of the State, STF officials concluded.