2 drug peddlers held with 175 kg poppy in Jammu

Two suspected drug peddlers were arrested in separate cases after a huge consignment of poppy straw, and charas were seized from their possession along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, police said on Wednesday.

Nitin Sharma (30), a resident of R S Pura, was arrested after police seized 175 kg poppy straw from his truck at Nagrota here, a police spokesman said.

He said Sharma was trying to smuggle the contraband, concealed in specially designed chambers inside the body of the vehicle, from Kashmir to outside the state.

A case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered in this connection and further investigation taken up, the spokesman said.

In another operation, he said, police recovered 200 gram of charas from one Hari Ram near Kowbagh along the highway in Ramban district.

The accused was moving suspiciously when police stopped him and after frisking, recovered the contraband, the spokesman said, adding that Ram was also booked under the NDPS act.