Patna: Three arrested with brown sugar, arms

PATNA: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in a joint operation with Patna police, arrested three drug smugglers and recovered 710 grams of morphine (brown sugar) along with two countrymade pistols, including a semi-automatic one, and four live cartridges from their possession in Patna on Friday. High-quality brown sugar is sold at around Rs3 crore/kg in the international market and over Rs 40 lakh per kg in the domestic market.
NCB sources said the raids were conducted on a rented accommodation of one Sunny Kumar near Mauji Mala market at Khemnichak under Ramkrishna Nagar police station area on Thursday night, leading to the arrests.Apart from Sunny, the other two arrested were identified as Munna Ravidas and Raju Prasad.
NCB Patna zonal director Kumar Manish said Sunny was the one of the main drug smugglers in Patna. He also said the amount of seized morphine is one of the biggest hauls seized by the NCB in the last few years.
“He used to supply drugs in several localities of Patna. Youths from poor as well as well-to-do background were among his customers,” he said.
The officer said the NCB was working on to bust the drug supply chain for more than two and a half months after which Sunny could be arrested.
Manish said the NCB was continuously receiving complaints from several sources about rampant smuggling of drugs in several areas of Patna. “Sunny revealed that he was procuring the drugs from south Bihar. A couple of more high-level drug smugglers are involved in the racket. Separate raids are still continuing on the basis of information received from Sunny,” the director said.
He said Munna and Raju worked for Sunny. “They used to make small packets and sell these to the customers in different locations on Sunny’s direction,” he said.
Manish said Sunny and Munna are residents of road number one in Postal Park and Raju is a resident of Surya Path on Chandmari Road, all under Kankarbagh police station area.
He said a case of drug smuggling has been registered with NCB while a separate case under the Arms Act has been lodged with Ramkrishna Nagar police station.
Ramkrishna Nagar police station SHO Rajeshwar Prasad said they are investigating to know if the trio had any other criminal cases lodged against them.