GUWAHATI: Guwahati police made a huge haul of contraband drugs after recovering over 1.3 kgs of heroin from an SUV in Sonapur on Saturday night. A total of six persons have been arrested in this connection so far.
Acting on an intelligence input, a special police squad led by Joint Commissioner of Police Partha Sarathi Mahanta intercepted the Manipur registered vehicle in Sonapur on the Eastern outskirts of Guwahati.
City police had specific intelligence on the consignment that originated from Moreh near the Indo-Myanmar border, and was making its way to Guwahati via Churachandpur District of Manipur.
Police said the drugs were ingeniously hidden under the front dashboard and inside the rear tail lights. Specialist mechanics had to be engaged to extract the drugs from the vehicle.
The consignment of heroin was hidden in 100 soap cases and weighed 1.32 kgs in total. Of the four people travelling in the SUV, two were mechanics who were supposed to help extract the drugs once the consignment had reached its destination, police said. All four are residents of Manipur.
Following their interrogation, the special squad swiftly launched operations in Guwahati and arrested two more men who were supposed to receive the consignment, police said. One of them is a resident of Manipur while the other hails from Nagaland.
Police said this case reflects a change of tactics by drug runners, who are shifting to the use of smaller vehicles instead of trucks and other large vehicles that were commonly used for transportation of contraband drugs into Assam.
Investigations are ongoing to unearth further linkages from the six arrested, police added.