This story is from January 5, 2020

Processed venom seized in Malda

Processed venom seized in Malda
Malda: Around 1kg of snake venom was seized from a hotel at English Bazar on Friday evening and three persons were arrested. Unlike previous seizures, the venom had been processed, which has led officers to suspect the presence of a laboratory around these parts.
A team of six personnel from the Malda police crime monitoring cell visited a hotel posing as customers.
There, the team seized a crystal jar containing about 1kg venom.
The three accused are from Kaliachak — Rafik Ali and Asique Mandal of Bamantola village and Masud Sk of Akandabaria village. The trio was produced in court and taken into police custody on Saturday.
A forest official said: “We suspect the seized jar contains cobra venom, which has a high demand in markets, especially in China. The venom is also used to make narcotics, which are used in rave parties.”
The Indo-Bangla border in Malda and South Dinajpur has been used to smuggle snake poison of late. Last March, around 1.5kg of poison was seized from Gazole on its way to being smuggled to Bangladesh. In May, there were two seizures of venom from Tapan in South Dinajpur and Malda’s Doulatpur. And in April, a substantial amount of snake venom was seized near Balurghat.
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