NCB seizes 24 kg of opium from UP, Bihar

A Jharkhand-based opium-trafficking network has been busted with the seizure of 24 kg of the contraband from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Sunday. The agencies have destroyed the crop on land measuring a total of 10,401 acres in eight states in the said period.

A Jharkhand-based opium-trafficking network has been busted with the seizure of 24 kg of the contraband from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Sunday. It said the drug seizure, along with cash amounting to Rs 20.80 lakh, was made in two separate instances early this month.

A total of 24 kg of opium was seized in the two operations conducted in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, NCB Deputy Director (operations) K P S Malhotra said. Four people were also arrested, he added.

"The two seizures are linked to Jharkhand-based networks. While Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the traditional opium-trafficking states, Jharkhand has recently emerged as the hub of illegal supply of opium," Malhotra said. The hilly tracts of the state provide a safe haven for the opium poppy cultivators and the supply finds its way to all over the country, including Haryana and Punjab, he added.

According to data, the NCB and state agencies have destroyed illicit opium poppy on 1,002 acres of land, where it was being cultivated, in Jharkhand in 2019-20. The agencies have destroyed the crop on land measuring a total of 10,401 acres in eight states in the said period. This is the harvest season of opium, which is a short-term cash crop for traffickers, Malhotra said.