A joint team of the special task force and district police arrested a man and seized 900kg of marijuana in Begusarai district on Thursday. The seized drug was valued at Rs 90 lakh in the international market.

Acting on a tip-off, the police intercepted a truck on National Highway-28 near Murlichak village under the jurisdiction of Bachhwara police station in Begusarai district and recovered marijuana stuffed in a specially designed cabin.

The police also arrested a man from the vehicle, later identified as Sandip Singh, a resident of Hemayanpur village in Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district. Sandip told interrogators that the consignment was booked from Punjab and was to be delivered to a man in Vaishali district.

The police team later visited Mohanpur in Vaishali to nab the man who was assigned to receive the consignment. However, he had escaped from the spot before the arrival of the team from Begusarai, a police official said.

Begusarai superintendent of police (SP) Aditya Kumar said the seized drug was valued at Rs 90 lakh. Members of the raiding team would be suitably rewarded for their commendable work, he said. Raids were on to arrest other members of the gang.

Earlier, the personnel of the directorate of revenue intelligence had seized 500kg of marijuana worth over Rs 25 lakh from Aurangabad on September 1. The raiding team also arrested two alleged smugglers.

The contraband was to be delivered to a man in Rohtas district. The consignment was booked from Vishakhapatnam and kept under a pile of paddy crops in the vehicle, a DRI official said in Patna.