Even as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking was being observed on Sunday, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch in a large drug haul seized 1.03 kg of brown sugar following a raid at Khordha.

The STF arrested four peddlers in this connection. The market value of the narcotics is said to be around Rs 1.30 crore.

Senior officials said that four peddlers Rakesh Kumar Barik, Biranchinarayan Sahoo, Jagabandhu Biswal and Santosh Routray have been arrested in this connection. All the four accused are residents of Khordha district.

A case under Section 21(c)/29 of NDPS Act 1985 has been registered and the accused were produced in court.

This is the second huge seizure of the contraband in this month.

On June 6, the STF had seized 2.058 kg of brown sugar worth nearly Rs 2.05 crore following a raid near AIIMS, Bhubaneswar and arrested three drug peddlers.

Earlier, brown sugar worth Rs 1.20 crore was also seized following a raid at Baramunda in Bhubaneswar in May.

In its special drive against illegal narcotics trade from 2020, the STF has seized more than 55 kg of brown sugar or heroin, 202 gram of cocaine and more than 111 quintals of ganja and 750 grams of opium. As many as 156 drug dealers and peddlers have been arrested in separate cases registered so far.

Notably, brown sugar is mostly procured from Murshidabad, Malda and other areas in West Bengal and transported to Odisha through Baleswar district.

Though the huge seizures of contraband and multiple arrests by the STF  has kept the drug menace in control to a large extent in Odisha, the narcotic supply chain from West Bengal has remained intact due to the porous borders and lax checking there by local police.

 So it is not surprising that these smuggled narcotics are reaching Bhubaneswar, Khordha and Puri and other areas to be peddled on the streets.