Guwahati: Hours after the Assam police arrested three Manipur natives on the charges of drug peddling, three more people, hailing from the neighbouring state, were nabbed, police said on Tuesday.
A senior police officer told IANS, "We arrested six drug dealers with heroin worth Rs 18 crore in Guwahati on Monday night. Of the arrested, three persons are residents of Churachandpur in Manipur."
The Special Task Force (STF) of the state police force led by Assam DIG Parthasarathi Mahanta and Kamrup district Additional Superintendent of Police Kalyan Kumar Pathak, conducted a search operation around Guwahati and confiscated the illegal drugs from a car in the Amingaon area.
The arrested have been identified as Samingon Doungel, Gogou Haokip, Haopu Singson, Inamul Ali, Khalilur Rahman and Abdul Ali.
Doungel is resident of Zionveng village under Tuibong police station in Manipur's Churachandpur district, while Gogou Haokip and Haopu Singson are from neighbouring villages of the same district.
The remaining three are Assam natives. Khalilur Rahman and Abdul Ali are Kamrup district residents, whereas Inamul Ali lives in the Sipajhar neighborhood of the Darrang district.
According to the police, the consignment of drugs was brought from Manipur via Mizoram and the Barak Valley region of Assam. The peddlers planned to deliver it somewhere in West Bengal.
Further investigation is underway. The police claimed that the market value of seized drugs is around Rs 18 crore.
On September 10, Assam police arrested three persons hailing from Thoubal district natives of Manipur for allegedly trying to smuggle narcotics.
A senior police officer said, "The car carrying narcotic substances has origin in Manipur and traveled via Mizoram, the Barak Valley region of Assam, and Meghalaya before arriving in Guwahati."
At least 198 soap boxes were recovered from the vehicle which contained 2.527 kg of narcotic substances. The police claimed that the market value of the seized drugs is estimated to be around Rs 21 crore.
—IANS