Murshidabad, 18 October (H.S.):

The police from Murshidabad's Farakka police station arrested two youths with a large quantity of brown sugar from the Kaliachak area of Malda district on Friday evening. According to police sources, approximately 1.7 kilograms of brown sugar, valued at approximately ₹2 crore in the international market, was recovered from their possession. Such a valuable contraband has not been recovered from any district in the state recently.

SDPO (Farakka) Sheikh Shamsuddin said on Saturday, On Friday evening, based on a tip-off from the state police's Special Task Force (STF) and the Crime Cell Unit of the Jangipur police district, police from Farakka police station raided the Shankarpur bus stand area. Jalal Sheikh and Masoom Sheikh, residents of Mahabbatpur village under the Kaliachak police station, were spotted moving suspiciously and were stopped. A search of their bags and other belongings yielded approximately 1.7 kilograms of brown sugar.

A district police officer stated that the recovered brown sugar is of very high quality and that such high-quality contraband has not been recovered by the police recently. Preliminary investigations have led police to suspect the drug was an attempt to smuggle it into Bangladesh.

An official from the district intelligence branch stated that several villages in Lalgola police station area of Murshidabad district were known as drug manufacturing hubs a few years ago. Frequent police raids have shut down all drug manufacturing centers there. Currently, drug traffickers are operating smuggling networks using areas in other districts.

The police have registered a case against the two arrested youths and have begun investigating the matter.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey