Dibrugarh, July 9: Ilahi Sheikh, 60, a wanted drug kingpin of Upper Assam, was arrested from his hideout at Tipong Lalpahar under Lekhapani police station in Tinsukia district yesterday by a team of Dibrugarh police.
Sheikh is the 11th drug peddler to have been arrested after the crackdown on the drug trade that started in Dibrugarh in the first week of May. This is the fifth time that he has been arrested by the Dibrugarh police.
Sheikh and his gang smuggled heroin from Bihar to Assam and controlled the trade in Upper Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, the police said.
"He used to smuggle narcotics, mainly from Dimapur and certain districts of Uttar Pradesh, and then sold them at different locations. He has some reliable peddlers who sold the stuff in Arunachal Pradesh. According to records, Sheikh was a tailor in the Kalibari area of the town in the early 70s. Later, he went on to become the biggest druglord of Upper Assam, amassing a huge fortune through his narcotics trade," a source said.
C.K. Boro, officer in-charge of Dibrugarh police station, told The Telegraph, "On specific inputs we raided his hideout and arrested him. On the basis of leads provided by him (Sheikh), 18gm of brown sugar, one illegal factory-made 7.65 calibre pistol with magazine, five rounds of 7.65 calibre ammunition and one Russian-made night vision device were recovered from his Dibrugarh residence at Kalibari."
His wife Asu Begum has been absconding since his arrest. She was also allegedly associated with the drug business.
On May 16, 2012, Sheikh was arrested from the Chandmari area of the town. One kilogram of heroin was recovered from him. After securing bail he resumed his drug business, the police said.
Sources said when the Dibrugarh police started the crackdown against the drug racket and arrested some of his associates, he went underground.
Sheikh is said to run his empire from Paanchali and Kalibari in Dibrugarh with the help of a close-knit distribution network, comprising mainly women peddlers and school dropouts.
