Kolkata, Aug 17 (IANS): In a night-long operation, the Siliguri Metropolitan Police busted a major narcotics smuggling racket in the northern sector of West Bengal arresting five persons and seizing banned drug consignment, officials said on Thursday.

According to the commissioner of Siliguri Metropolitan Police, Akhilesh Chaturvedi, the market value of the seized brown-sugar is estimated to be around Rs 5 crore.

“The five arrested persons will be presented at district court on Thursday only and we will demand police custody for them,” said Chaturvedi.

Local police sources said that the arrests and the seizure of huge banned narcotics consignment were done in two phases since Wednesday night.

“On being tipped off by our sources, our investigating officials first raided a place near the Siliguri Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. The raid and search operations were conducted by a joint team of cops from the special operations group of Siliguri Metropolitan Police and the local Bhaktinagar Police Station. Three persons Rashid Sheikh, Durga Soren and Pradip Munda with huge consignment of brown-sugar were arrested there,” a local police official said.

While Rashid is a resident of Malda district, the other two are residents of Kharibari area under Siliguri sub- division in Darjeeling district. The narcotics consignment from Malda was supposed to be handed over to the local peddlers at the Siliguri Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

Sourcing information from them another team, the Siliguri Metropolitan Police and the local Siliguri Police Station conducted raid and search operations and arrested two persons with banned narcotics consignment. The persons arrested from near a warehouse of Food Corporation of India at Bagrakot area have been identified at Bandhan Majhi and Borsai Kisku.