Aurangabad/Bhubaneswar: Two peddlers travelled over 900 km, crossed three state borders, on a moped with high-quality marijuana collected from the forests of Odisha, before running out of luck.
They fell into the trap laid by the special squad of Aurangabad police and were nabbed in the early hours of Tuesday while transporting the contraband, which they moved to an autorickshaw brought by their owner on the outskirts of the city. The 111kg of marijuana with a market value of nearly Rs 22 lakh, which was systematically packed in brown-coloured air-tight and waterproof packets, were recovered from under the seat of the three-wheeler.
The accused have been identified as Bakhtiyar Khan alias Raja (36) of Sharif Colony in Kiradpura area, Shaikh Shahrukh (23) of Asefiya colony in the Townhall area and Shaikh Shoeb (20) of Rehmaniya colony in the city.
According to a report published in the Times of India, the accused used to compress the marijuana before packing it and hid them under blankets. If stopped by police, they would identify themselves as blankets and shawls sellers.