Jaipur: The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has seized narcotics worth more than Rs 700 crore in the last 10 months, officials said, putting the state on track to exceed last year’s total of over Rs 850 crore. If the current pace holds, seizures for the year could cross Rs 1,000 crore, according to the agency.IG, ANTF, Vikas Kumar said Saturday the agency recovered over 360kg of opium during the period, targeting trafficking networks that route the drug through Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The larger hauls included 81kg in Jalore, 50kg in Bhilwara, 20kg in Sikar and nearly 100kg in Sirsa, Haryana. Investigators said the seizures pointed to a supply route bringing opium from Manipur into Rajasthan. The agency also stepped up action against illegal opium cultivation within the state.Separately, the ANTF has intensified its crackdown on mephedrone (MD) manufacturing, an area where Rajasthan has emerged as a significant production centre.Kumar said that 34 illegal MD units have been busted in the state, 27 of them this year — 10 detected directly by the ANTF. In one operation police raided an illegal factory in Balesar, Jodhpur Rural, seizing 176kg of MD after an exchange of fire with alleged traffickers. He said the ANTF has recovered over 185kg of MD this year, compared to around 70kg seized statewide last year.The agency also said it arrested 84 people described as key operatives in narcotics networks, many carrying rewards of Rs 25,000 or more; the cumulative reward amount on those arrested exceeded Rs 22 lakh. Some of the accused had been absconding for over a decade, officials said, with rewards of Rs 1 lakh or more on a few of them. A number of those arrested were also wanted by police in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, as well as by the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Central Bureau of Narcotics.To make the arrests, ANTF teams carried out operations in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana, officials added.“We now have 18 check posts covering key areas of the state which has helped us keep a close eye on the drug network,” Kumar said.
