Silchar, Oct 23: Cachar police seized 78,400 suspected Yaba tablets, estimated to be worth Rs 19.6 crore in the black market, after intercepting a vehicle allegedly carrying the narcotics from Mizoram towards Silchar. One person has been apprehended in connection with the seizure.
“Acting on information about suspected drug transportation in a vehicle bearing registration number AS 11 Z 7188, Dholai police set up a naka checkpoint at Channighat on Wednesday night,” Cachar Senior Superintendent of Police Partha Protim Das said on Thursday.
The vehicle, however, met with an accident at Nandapara Bypass on National Highway 306, where local residents detained it along with its driver. Police subsequently reached the spot and searched the vehicle in the presence of independent witnesses, recovering the suspected narcotics.
“The tablets were seized following due legal procedures, and one person has been apprehended in connection with the seizure,” Das said.
The latest recovery comes days after Cachar police seized 2.3 lakh Yaba tablets, with an estimated market value of Rs 57.5 crore, from a truck bearing a Nagaland registration number in the Udharbond area on October 16. Two persons were arrested in that case.
The successive seizures have drawn attention to narcotics trafficking through the Barak Valley, which connects Mizoram and other parts of the Northeast with the rest of the country.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma acknowledged the latest seizure in a social media post, referring to an alleged attempt to evade detection by changing vehicles at the border.
“Mission impossible? Not in Assam!” the Chief Minister wrote, adding that changing the vehicle had not changed the outcome of the operation.