A dramatic chase by Malda district police has led to the arrest of four key members of an interstate narcotics racket at the Dabolim Airport in Goa.

The case has also exposed a new method of smuggling of narcotics from Manipur — by air, in jars labelled "health drinks".

With the arrest of the four alleged masterminds, a total of six members of the racket are now in police custody for interrogation. Investigators believe interrogation could reveal crucial details about the narcotics network.

The operation began on January 31 with the arrest of Sohel Akhtar aka Dalim and Benarul Sheikh aka Suraj, both from Malda's Kaliachak, from an apartment in Calcutta's New Town. The police seized some 500 grams of a substance used to produce brown sugar (a derivative of heroin).

“During their interrogation, we obtained four other names,” said Avijit Banerjee, the superintendent of police of Malda.

These four — Ismail Sheikh, Sohrab Ali, Mizanur Rahman and Abdul Suvan, also from Kaliachak — had taken shelter in Himachal Pradesh and were waiting for their associates.

When the police began tracking their movements, they moved to Gurgaon and switched off their cell phones. A special team of senior police officers was formed under the supervision of Maqsood Hasan, the additional SP (headquarters) of Malda, to track them down.

In due course, investigators got a lead that the suspects were heading to Delhi airport. Initially, police believed they were returning to Calcutta, but it was found at the last moment that they had boarded a Goa-bound flight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Malda police immediately coordinated with their Goa counterparts, sharing flight details and photographs of suspects. On February 7, the quartet were held when they landed at the Dabolim Airport.

A Malda police team subsequently went to Goa, completed legal formalities, and brought the accused back to Malda on transit remand. On February 14, they were produced in a court here and remanded to seven days in police custody. A sealed jar containing a substance needed to produce brown sugar was seized from them.

“During interrogation, they revealed that raw materials used to make brown sugar were being transported by air from Manipur to Calcutta. These consignments were usually handed over either near the Calcutta airport or at hideouts in New Town,” said a police source.

“To evade airport security checks, the items were concealed in sealed jars labelled as health drinks or herbal medicines,” the source said.

The raw materials were transported to Kaliachak, where the drugs were processed and distributed across various parts of the country through established supply chains.

“In the last two months, we have seized around 72 kilos of brown sugar and arrested 120 persons directly involved in narcotics trafficking. Such drives will go on,” said the SP.