UP emerges as opium transit route to Punjab
The Anti-Narcotics Task Force seized 26.737 kg of opium worth approximately ₹1.3 crore and arrested four people in two operations.
The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has seized 26.737 kg of opium, valued at an estimated ₹1.3 crore, during two separate operations in Uttar Pradesh, according to the Hindustan Times.
The seizures suggest that the state is becoming a transit corridor for smuggling opium to Punjab. The operations involved the interception of an SUV and a truck.
On Monday, the ANTF’s Bareilly and Gautam Buddh Nagar sub-units stopped an SUV on the Bilari-Shahabad road near Rampur. The vehicle contained 20.497 kg of opium worth about ₹1 crore.
Police arrested Awadhesh Kumar Sharma, Naveen, both from Bareilly, and Vipin Kumar from Punjab's Moga district. The men allegedly worked for a handler in Bareilly to deliver the drugs to Punjab.
In a second operation on Tuesday, the ANTF’s Saharanpur unit intercepted a truck on the Lucknow-Sitapur road near Sitapur. They arrested Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Mohali, with 6.240 kg of opium worth roughly ₹30 lakh.
Singh allegedly sourced the drugs from Barachatti in Bihar for delivery to Banur in Mohali. Investigators are currently tracing the handlers and recipients involved in these supply chains.