Bhubaneswar: Sonepur police arrested two persons for smuggling marijuana weighing 3.75 quintal during a raid on Monday.
The accused were identified as Bijay Gowel and Binod Majhi from Madhya Pradesh.
According to police the accused were smuggling ganja in an iron rod-laden truck. On a tip-off, Sonepur police waylaid the truck and seized the ganja at Police Kunj Square.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that they were carrying the contraband to Madhya Pradesh.
Talking to mediapersons, Sonepur Superintendent of Police Yashpratap Shrimal said, “We got information from a reliable source that the ganja is being smuggled to Madhya Pradesh in an iron-rod laden truck. We detained the vehicle near Kunj Chhak and seized 375 quintals of ganja from their possession. Police also seized iron rods weighing 24 tons. Both the driver and helper Bijay Gowel and Binod Majhi were arrested. They confessed that they used to procure ganja from Odisha and sell the contraband in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.”
Notably, Odisha Police have seized a record 494 quintal ganja and arrested 529 peddlers in 425 cases in the first quarter of 2024. The first quarter falls between January 1 and March 31, said officials on Tuesday.
It is pertinent to mention that the arrested traffickers include many inter-state kingpins and masterminds and they are from Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar, UP and Odisha.
In 2023, Odisha Police seized a record 1,850 quintal ganja and arrested more than 1,600 peddlers.
This was the highest seizure of contraband in a single year in the last half-decade. The seizure in 2023 was around 37 per cent more compared to 2022.
It is also believed to be the highest seizure by any state in the country in 2023.
