Chrome-ore laden trucks seized by police. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, Nov. 20: Five persons were arrested today near Jantilo fair ground on Cuttack-Chandballi state highway by a joint squad of Kendrapara police in connection with smuggling of high-grade charge chrome ores.

The police also seized seven ore-laden trucks and claimed to have busted an organised inter-state racket thriving on ore smuggling.

“On a tip-off, we conducted raid at a deserted spot near Jantilo on Cuttack-Chandballi state highway and caught the racketeers when they were unloading the smuggled cargo,” said Kendrapara police station inspector Ranjan Kumar Dey.

The seized consignment was on its way to Paradip port for export when the joint squad intercepted the ore-laden trucks near Jantilo fair ground, about 15km from here.

The ores were being transported by trucks from the mining belts of Jajpur as per prior export order. The smuggled consignment weighed over 80 tonnes and it is valued at over Rs 20 crore.

The modus operandi of the racket was ingenious. The racketeers used to empty about one tonne of ores from the loaded 10 tonne-capacity trucks. Later, to make up the loss of weight of transported minerals, they used to sprinkle water. As the ores get wet, the loss of weight was being compensated. The smuggled ores were later being dispatched to charge chrome plants based in Odisha and Jharkhand.

The arrested racket members were Munna Sahu, Khirod Behera, Srinibash Behera, Shubash Das and Ajay Behera, the police said.

However the kingpins of the racket managed to escape. Search was on to arrest them shortly, the police said.

Interrogation of the arrested had led to unfolding of vital clues on the smuggling racket.

The crew of ore-laden trucks act as conduit of the racket. While those, who run the racket mint money, drivers and crew members are doled out hardly Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 for ore unloading. The root of the network was well spread-out from transporters to cargo handlers in the Paradip port, Dey said.

“Our counterparts in Paradip have been apprised for expediting probe into the racket. Authorities of the Paradip Port Trust are being informed about the development,” he said.