Five Drug Traffickers Arrested in Chatra; Brown Sugar Seized

Chatra: In a major crackdown on narcotics trafficking, Chatra police on Monday arrested five persons and seized banned brown sugar worth approximately Rs 6 lakh, officials said.

The police also recovered a car allegedly used for drug smuggling and five mobile phones from the possession of the accused.

The arrests were made after Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar Agrawal received specific intelligence inputs regarding the illegal trade. A special team was immediately constituted from the Sadar police station under the supervision of SDPO (Sadar) Sandeep Suman.

Police said the information suggested that brown sugar was being bought and sold from a vehicle parked near the Turag forest along the Chatra–Itkhori main road. After verifying the inputs, the police conducted a raid and arrested the accused on the spot.

During the search, brown sugar packed in small sachets, along with the vehicle and mobile phones, were seized.

Those arrested were identified as Rupesh Kumar Dangi of Manghaniya village in Mayurhand, Neeraj Kumar Yadav, Prakash Kumar Dangi, and Laxman Kumar Dangi, all residents of Dhodhi village in Mayurhand, and Rakesh Kumar Dangi of Lowagada village under the Chatra Sadar police station area.

Police officials said preliminary questioning revealed that the accused were working as intermediaries, supplying narcotics sourced from major drug kingpins to different locations in Chatra and neighbouring Hazaribagh districts.

The SP stated that the ownership of the seized vehicle has been traced to a person from Hazaribagh district and further investigation is underway to identify the larger drug syndicate and arrest its key operators.

With inputs from IANS