The Special Task Force of Odisha Crime Branch Police arrested the kingpin of an interstate drug peddling racket from Guwahati in a joint operation with its counterparts in Assam.
The fugitive drug peddler identified as Salim Ahmmed, a resident of a village in Imphal East district of Manipur, was wanted in a drug peddling case intercepted by the STF on 3 December last year.
The brown sugar contraband valued at over Rs one crore in black market was seized then and two accused persons nabbed with the drug haul were remanded to judicial custody then.
Ahmmed, who was the mastermind of the gang, was on the run since the arrest of his accomplices. Acting on a tipoff, he was intercepted at Guwahati with assistance by Assam police.
The accused is being brought on transit remand after producing him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup (Metro), Guwahati, Assam. Later he will be produced in the District and Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Cuttack, a statement by the STF said.