Imphal: Two women were arrested by police with a huge quantity of illegal drugs and explosive materials, police said on Wednesday. Teams of Imphal East district police arrested the two women. One of the women was arrested from Senapati district headquarters in a follow up operation to the arrest of one woman from Imphal’s New Checkon area on Tuesday, around 9:20 am, the police added.
The police recovered 2.70 kg of heroin powder packed in 160 soap cases along with a cash amount of Rs 5,000 from the possession of the woman identified as Veineichong, a resident of Kangchup Geljang in Senapati district. While the other woman arrested from Senapati district headquarters in the follow up action was identified as Poukhurou along with 1.30 kg of opium and 13 gram of heroin powder, the police said.
The police further recovered 30 blasting sticks (about 3.775 gm), two packets of detonators containing 20 and 66 detonators respectively, an 18 ft long cortex wire, 11 paper-wrapped packets containing three detonators and one cut piece of cortex wire.
Addressing a press conference, Imphal East superintendent of police, M Pradip alleged that the first woman bought the heroin powder from Myanmar by herself at the rate of Rs 9,000 per soap case. She transported the same to Imphal for onward handing over to the second woman who was arrested by the police from Senapati bazar along with explosive materials later.
The second woman has to hand over the same further to a non-Manipuri, the police officer said.
The second woman was arrested by a team of the district police who rushed to the district sensing the urgency of arresting the said woman who is suspected to be a drugs and explosives dealer, the police officer further said. She was arrested with the assistant of the Senapati district police, he said.
According to Pradip, based on the disclosure made by the second woman, she brought the explosive materials from an unknown official who was working at a road construction agency at Willong of Senapati district.
She further stated that the said items were to be sold, doubling the prices to prospective buyers. They suspected the buyers to be underground members, the police officer further said. The explosive items were suspected to be used by the underground outfits in planting of IEDS in various places of the state.
“It is highly suspected that the explosives would be used to create disturbances in the upcoming Independence Day celebration and also in targeting security forces,” the police officer added “Her narco-terrorism link is also being investigated,” the superintendent of police added.
The arrested women along with the seized items were handed over to Porompat police station for taking up necessary legal actions, he further added.
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