Five held for smuggling cannabis worth Rs 1.5 crore in Kheri

BAREILLY: Five persons were arrested after a large consignment of cannabis worth Rs 1.5 crore was seized in Isanagar area of Lakhimpur Kheri district on Thursday.


The arrests were made after a joint operation by Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) and Kheri police detected the smuggling of 6,400 kg cannabis from Bihar to UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri.

Two of the smugglers belong to Kanpur district and were smuggling the narcotics substance using forged documents.

Earlier, 4.5 quintal marijuana and cocaine worth Rs 1.2 crore was seized in the district. This is one of the biggest drug hauls in the district in the past decade.

The STF received tipoffs from Lucknow on Thursday that a large consignment of cannabis would be smuggled to Kheri. Acting upon the information, the STF initiated a joint operation with SHO Isanagar police station and partly blocked the state highway. Soon the truck in question was located and seized.

The accused tried to escape from STF team by producing forged documents but when they realised they don’t have any option to flee, they surrendered and revealed the truth. The accused were identified as Ram Singh Verma, Suresh Kumar, both from Kheri, Veer Singh, Mintu from Kanpur and driver Jafar Khan from Shajapur in Madhya Pradesh.

SSP Lakhimpur Kheri Poonam said, “We have recovered cannabis worth Rs 1.5 crore in Isanagar with the help of STF Lucknow. The accused were smuggling the narcotics substance using forged documents and we have slapped the sections of forgery apart from NDPS Act against them.”