Prayagraj: An interstate drug trafficker was arrested with 515 grams of heroin (smack) worth around Rs 1.03 crore during a joint operation by the Narcotics Task Force (NTF), Crime Branch and Industrial Area police in Prayagraj on Saturday.The accused, Alok Tripathi (42), a resident of Kidwai Nagar in Banda district, was arrested from a road behind Saraswati Hi-Tech City under the Industrial Area police station limits. Police recovered the contraband along with Rs 7,060 in cash, a mobile phone and a router allegedly used in the narcotics trade.An FIR has been registered and further legal proceedings are underway.During interrogation, Tripathi told police that he sourced heroin from Imphal in Manipur through transport trucks and supplied it to buyers across several districts of Uttar Pradesh. He was arrested while allegedly attempting to deliver the consignment at the secluded location, police said.The accused further revealed that he had been arrested by Delhi Police’s Rohini police station in a heroin trafficking case in 2020. To evade detection, he allegedly used his mobile phone without a SIM card and relied on a router and WhatsApp for communication with associates, police added.
