NCB catches leader of interstate cannabis syndicate | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: In a breakthrough, the local unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Mumbai has nabbed the alleged controller of an inter-state smuggling syndicate that was under the agency’s scanner for supplying cannabis to dealers and peddlers in the city.

Acting on specific intelligence, NCB officials intercepted the suspect at his village in Ganjam district of Odisha, in coordination with local authorities, after a field unit had been deployed there for over a month to gather information to trace the leader, agency sources said.

The accused, identified only as “NP”, will be brought to Mumbai on judicial custody to probe his role in a case related to the agency’s seizure of a consignment of cannabis illegally brought to the city from Odisha, said sources of the service.

The NCB had in October seized 45 kg of cannabis from some persons in Chembur, who were allegedly part of the suspect’s smuggling network, the sources said. The cannabis was hidden in a house for later sale to buyers, the sources said.

The syndicate under the NCB’s scanner not only specializes in procuring the contraband from Odisha for transportation to Mumbai but also in maintaining a network of agents in the city to monitor its concealment in select hideouts, the sources said. “From the hideouts, the cannabis is sold to a network of hawkers and dealers in the city when the price is profitable for the syndicate,” said an agency source.

The NCB had deployed a team in Odisha after it allegedly intercepted some members of the syndicate in Mumbai a month ago and questioned them about the likely whereabouts of the accused. It was learned that the suspect rarely used phones and frequently changed locations to evade detection, making it difficult to trace him, the sources said.

The suspect had recently been granted bail by the court. Two cases have reportedly been registered against him in Odisha – one under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the second under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, the sources said.