Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: Rampant sale of brown sugar in various city slums has become a major concern for police.

Over the past three months, the cops have seized brown sugar worth Rs 30 lakh and arrested a dozen drug peddlers from various parts of Bhubaneswar.

The police started a crackdown on peddlers of ganja and brown sugar following the death of an engineering student on May 6. Engineering student Ashutosh Mahanty, 21, allegedly died after being drugged by a peddler from the Haldi Padia slum.

This slum, which is located near Laxmisagar police station, has been a major market for sale of the contraband with the police busting three brown sugar peddling rackets there in the past three years.

The cops said the contraband was mostly smuggled into Odisha from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal and is sold in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Puri and Balasore.

"Since a very small quantity of brown sugar is sold between Rs 150 and Rs 200, the peddlers find the job very lucrative. On August 10, we arrested a peddler called Ayesha Biwi from Haldi Padia slum and this wasn't the first time she was arrested on this charge," said a police official.

Excise officials suspect the illegal trade has spread to several other slums in the city.

"We have information of the drug being sold at Chakeisiani in Mancheswar, Old Town, Dumuduma, Mali Sahi and Salia Sahi. But the operation is being conducted so clandestinely, that we are yet to track down the peddlers despite several raids," said an excise official.

The police said the drug peddlers were now providing the contraband to customers through orders on mobile phones. "Earlier, the customers used to come to the peddlers. But after we started raiding the hideouts, they are conducting business through mobile phones. We recently arrested a peddler called Dillip Singh who admitted to delivering the contraband directly to his customers," said a police official.

Deputy commissioner Satyabrata Bhoi said the drive against drug peddlers would be intensified. "We have been sending our men as decoys to various slums to bust such rackets. Besides, we also have created a list of suspected peddlers and are trying to nab them," said Bhoi.

NARCOTICS TRAIL

♦ Aug 20: Police seize 52gm brown sugar and arrest two from Haldi Padia slum
♦ Aug 10: Police seize 40gm brown sugar and arrest four from Haldi Padia slum
♦ June 13: Police seize 800 packets of brown sugar weighing 50gm and arrest three peddlers who have been running brown sugar racket in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar
♦ June 3: Police seize brown sugar weighing 69gm from Haldi Padia Slum and arrest one
♦ May 19: Police and excise officials seize 55gm of brown sugar from various parts of Bhubaneswar and arrest two