Tripura Police intensify anti-drug operations, seizes narcotics

Agartala, Oct 18 (IANS) The Tripura Police, in coordination with intelligence agencies, have intensified their anti-narcotics operations over the past 10 days, leading to significant seizures of contraband substances across the state, Chief Minister Manik Saha said on Saturday.

Taking to various social media platforms, the Chief Minister Saha informed that during the past 10 days, the police recovered 896 kg of ganja (cannabis), 90,617 bottles of cough syrup, 180 highly addictive methamphetamine tablets, and 27.78 grams of heroin from different locations.

A total of 15 cases under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985 have been registered, and 16 accused persons have been arrested in connection with the seizures of various drugs.

Saha, who also holds the home portfolio, said that the Tripura Police reaffirmed their commitment to make the state free from the menace of drugs and to bring all key players involved in the illicit trade under the purview of law.

The state government, following a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ towards drugs, has been working resolutely to secure a drug-free future for the youth of Tripura, he stated.

Meanwhile, various security forces, including Assam Rifles, have confiscated drugs worth over Rs 134.50 crore in Tripura in less than three weeks. On Friday (October 17), in a joint operation, security forces recovered drugs worth Rs 4.5 crore from a goods train stationed at the Jirania railway station in West Tripura district, arriving from Delhi.

A senior official said that the Tripura Police, Assam Rifles, Government Railway Police (GRP), Special Task Force (STF) and the Customs jointly conducted a thorough search of the goods train and recovered 90,000 bottles of banned Eskuf Cough Syrup, which contains Codeine Phosphate and Triprolidine Hydrochloride, substances commonly misused as narcotics in India and neighbouring Bangladesh.

Police have continued their search operations to trace the main accused responsible for transporting the banned Eskuf cough syrup by train from Delhi.

On October 6, in one of the major drug hauls, the Assam Rifles, in close coordination with Customs officials, seized contraband valued at Rs 70 crore in Tripura’s bordering Khowai district and arrested four drug peddlers.

Acting on secret inputs, the joint team of Assam Rifles and Customs officials intercepted two trucks carrying cement as cover cargo for narcotics trafficking and recovered 69.61 kg of highly addictive methamphetamine tablets valued at around Rs 70 crore.

A Defence spokesperson had said that the October 6 operation was a follow-up to a successful operation conducted on September 29 in the bordering Mohanpur area of West Tripura district. The September 29 operation led to the recovery of 60.77 kg of banned methamphetamine tablets worth Rs 60 crore.

A senior police official said that the drugs seized on September 29 and October 6 might have been smuggled from Myanmar and transported through Mizoram and southern Assam to Tripura, from where they were intended to be smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Tripura, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, is surrounded on three sides by the neighbouring country, making the northeastern state vulnerable to cross-border migration, crimes, illegal trade and smuggling. Except for some patches, most parts of the frontier have been fenced to prevent smuggling, trans-border crimes and illegal infiltration.

--IANS

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