Police seize drugs, arrest 18 from rave party in Guwahati

Guwahati, Aug 14 (PTI) Police have recovered huge quatities of drugs, including cocaine, from a high-end apartment at Kharguli area of the city and arrested 18 people, allegedly drug peddlers and addicts, from a rave party there, a police official said on Saturday.

Acting on specific information that drugs were being consumed at a birthday party organised by a person at the apartment, the city police conducted a raid at around midnight on Friday, Guwahati City Commissioner of Police Harmeet Singh said.

He told newsmen that cocaine was seized for the first time in the city and it is suspected that those arrested from the rave party had links outside the state.

The police seized four kg of cocaine, ganja and weeds of different types, Singh said.

The mobile phones of those arrested are being checked and details will be revealed following the interrogation of the arrested and investigation into the case.

The arrested people were not only engaged in buying, selling and consuming illegal drugs but had also violated the COVID-19 protocol by gathering in large numbers and holding a party, which is prohibited by the state government, Singh said.

The Assam government has launched a war on drugs and huge quantities of drugs have been seized and peddlers have been arrested in the last fortnight in capital city alone. He said 330 gm of heroin, 12.5 kg of ganja and 65 peddlers, excluding those arrested in the Friday night incident, and 12 vehicles have been seized, Singh said.

He asked people to share information with the police and assured that the names of informers will not be revealed.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the sidelines of a function that contraband drugs are being seized daily.

"The war on drugs will continue till the state is completely free from it," he said adding the state government has taken stern steps to check drug traffickers.

Sarma after assuming office in May had directed the police to crackdown on drug trafficking in the state. PTI DG KK KK KK