Kolkata, Feb 3 (IANS): A total of 1,887 kg of dry cannabis was seized and five persons were arrested in two different search operations in Assam, an official from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said here on Friday.

"With the support of the Border Security Force (BSF), the DRI officials intercepted a truck at Digarkhal area of Cachar district of Assam and recovered 750 kgs of dry cannabis packed in 66 packets concealed under scrap paper cartons, " the official said.

Driver, Baljeet Singh, hailing from Uttar Pradesh and the handyman, Balwinder Singh from Tripura, were arrested and the truck was also seized.

Two more persons - Litan Das and Saiful Alam - both hailing from Tripura, who were engaged in escorting the truck, were also held and their car was also seized.

"In an another separate incident, the DRI personnel along with BSF officials intercepted a truck at Jawahar Nagar area of Ambassa in Tripura and recovered 1,137.4 kgs of dry cannabis kept in 74 packets. These packets were hidden inside a specially-built cavity at the back of the driver's seat," he said.

"These two back to back seizures indicates that the northeast continues to be the sensitive zone for production of cannabis, from where it is being spread to different parts of India by the syndicates," a DRI statement added.