Kolkata, Jan 17 (IANS): West Bengal Police busted a major contraband narcotics racket operating through the Siliguri corridor in the northern sector of the state by nabbing six people, including three women, and recovered Rs 1.5 crore worth of banned narcotics from their possessions.

The entire operation was conducted by a joint team of the Siliguri Police Commissionerate and Special Operations Group (SOG) of West Bengal Police which continued for around 12 hours from Thursday night till early Friday morning.

According to Deputy Commissioner of the Commissionerate Rakesh Singh, the six persons, including three women, had plans to smuggle those seized drugs consignment through the Siliguri corridor.

“Further investigation is on to trace others involved in the racket,” he added.

Meanwhile, sources from the Siliguri Police Commissionerate said that the involvement of women in the narcotics smuggling racket has been a new trend evolving in this particular corridor.

“In the first operations after Thursday midnight, a total of four persons, including one woman, were arrested with 600 grams of extremely high and pure quality brown sugar. In the face of interrogations, they revealed that they imported the consignments from Malda district and had plans to circulate the same in the Siliguri corridor,” an officer from the commiserate said.

The four arrested in the first operation have been identified as Suchitra Burman, Subhash Burman, Anwar Sheikh and Sayam Sheikh.

In the second operation, the joint team on early Friday morning arrested two women from the National Highways adjacent to Bagdogra Airport and seized 902 grams of equally pure and high-quality brown sugar from their possessions.

The two arrested women have been identified as Shahina Begum and Gulbasana Begum.

“The two procured the consignments from Malda district and had plans to circulate the same in the Siliguri corridor,” the commiserate official said. All six will be presented at a district court in Siliguri on Friday afternoon and the public prosecutor will seek their police custody.