Balasore, Jan. 13: The enforcement agencies today arrested three drug peddlers including a woman and seized brown sugar worth about Rs 20 lakh from them.
The accused have been identified as Prafulla Sandha, 48, Bangaru Hembram, 21, and Sonia Hembram, 27.
Sandha, who was nabbed in a separate raid, was arrested from his house.
“Brown sugar weighing about 132 gram was seized from Prafulla’s residence in presence of the local magistrate. He said that he had procured the drugs from Odor Bazar,” said inspector-in-charge of Town police station Manas Deo.
Prafulla, a native of Aul in Kendrapara district, stayed in a rented house.
“He has no previous crime record,” said deputy superintendent of police, district crime wing, Amaresh Panda.
In another raid, the excise department seized around 53 grams of brown sugar from Odor Bazar and arrested the other two.
Excise sub inspector Ajay Behera said: “We conducted the raid on a tip-off and arrested Sonia Hembram and Bangaru Hembram. Sonia’s husband, Gada Hembram, was arrested last month after seizure of 46 grams of brown sugar was found on him.”
“Drugs are coming in from Kharagpur to Jaleswar through a syndicate. From Jaleswar, the drugs are sent to different parts of the state,” he said.
Balasore was drug-peddlers’ haven in the late nineties.