Koraput: In a swift and sweeping crackdown, Koraput district police on Saturday arrested six persons, including the alleged kingpin, a resident of Kerala, of an inter-state hashish oil syndicate, within 30 hours of storming a clandestine drug laboratory hidden on a remote island inside Jolaput reservoir.The arrests followed the dismantling of a sophisticated temporary manufacturing unit concealed deep inside dense forest under Padwa police station limits along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border, a terrain long exploited by traffickers for its isolation and difficult access.Acting on precise intelligence inputs, police teams launched an amphibious operation on Feb 26, approaching the island by boats before trekking through thick undergrowth to strike the extraction unit. The raid led to the seizure of 1,800.5 litres of hashish oil valued at over Rs 225 crore and 1,000 kg of ganja worth around Rs 5 crore.Investigators recovered a full-fledged improvised laboratory setup, including a 28 KV generator, modified pressure cookers fitted with custom piping, metal connectors, storage drums and nearly 80 litres of cleaning solvents, indicating large-scale commercial production.DIG (SWR) Kanwar Vishal Singh said one accused was apprehended at the site, but the alleged mastermind and his associates had fled into the dense forest moments before police reached the unit. What followed was an intense 30-hour cordon and search operation across the island and surrounding terrain.The entire island, spread across several miles with two mounds, was sealed. All ferry points and possible escape routes were blocked. Continuous boat patrolling was carried out inside the reservoir. Six ground teams conducted grid searches and combing operations, and drones were deployed across multiple sectors to track movement under the dense canopy, the DIG said.Despite the hostile terrain, police succeeded in arresting Allen Jayaraj (33) of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, identified as the kingpin and main cook of the syndicate. Five others Kiran D (33), Anand Raj (28) and Bittu B (34) from Kerala, along with local facilitators Lalchan Khilla (25) of Malkangiri and Sadhu Pangi (45) of Koraput were also nabbed.“This was a well-structured inter-state syndicate with technical expertise and organised logistics. By dismantling the laboratory and arresting the kingpin within hours of the raid, we have struck at the manufacturing backbone of the racket,” Singh said.Preliminary interrogation indicates that Jayaraj, described by police as a history-sheeter in Kerala with a violent criminal past and prior NDPS cases, identified the secluded island to set up a high-output extraction unit. The gang allegedly procured bulk quantities of ganja and converted it into high-purity hashish oil using a multi-stage process involving specialised chemicals and controlled heating.SP (Koraput) Rohit Verma said the operation had been in the making for days. Jayaraj leveraged his criminal network and local contacts in the ganja trade to establish the unit. It was set up barely 15 days ago. Their funding sources and forward linkages are under investigation, and we will seek his remand for sustained interrogation, Verma said.Police said the Kerala-based members handled production and inter-state distribution, while local facilitators sourced raw material and exploited their familiarity with the rugged terrain to shield the operation.Meanwhile, to further intensify the investigation, an SIT has been formed under the SPs supervision to monitor the probe. Forensic examination of seized materials and financial investigations are underway, and multiple teams are being dispatched to other states to map the broader smuggling network.More details cannot be divulged at this stage as the investigation is in progress, the DIG said, appealing to the public to assist the police under the Nasha Mukt Odisha campaign.
