Probe widens, source traced to Myanmar

DRUG MECE IN GUWAHATI

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, May 7: Despite Guwahati figuring prominently in the drug-trafficking corridor, the city police have been somnolent as drug dealers and peddlers had a free run under its very nose. With public patience wearing thin, the police have now belatedly woken up, arresting at least 20 suspects over the last week from various parts of the city, while widening the ambit of its probe into the mece.

However, police admit the arrested persons are only fourth-fifth rung members of the "chain" with its ring leaders and kingpins still at large.

An alarming lead emerging from the investigations is that the drugs are being sourced from Myanmar through conduits in Manipur.

"One of the accused has revealed that a person from Manipur often comes to Guwahati and supplies drugs in places like Hatigaon and Super Market. He moves around in an auto. We have got some leads and are trying to trace him," a police officer said, quoting revelations made by arrested persons.

Under pressure from residents of SK Bhuyan Path area in Ambari, furious over police iction against drug dealers despite repeated reminders, police arrested a mother-son duo - Samsul Nessa and Billal Afridi - at Boko on Thursday night. Billal had been bbed with drugs about a year back, but was out on bail.

The absconding kingpins of the drug racket - Bhulu and his mother Ri Begum - are tents of Samsul Nessa.

Five others were picked up a couple of days before from the same locality. "Not all the arrested are peddlers. Some are addicts," said a police officer.

Police are on the lookout for at least three more persons from SK Bhuyan Path - Siraj Ahmed, Murtaza Ahmed and Zahura Begum.

The crime branch is also hunting for a few more notorious drug peddlers, including one Bipul and another Sahin.

Paltan Bazar police arrested three persons yesterday in connection with the racket.

One railway employee, Nripen Das, was caught with 185 strips of nitrosun tablets and some cough syrup.

Police also arrested a woman - Dhanvati Devi - with 20 kg ganja from Sarabbhati area today.