Shimla, Sep 19 (PTI) A man was arrested with over 400 grams of chitta (adulterated heroin) near the Kharapathar area here, police said on Thursday.
The accused was identified as Mudasir Ahmed Mochi, a resident of Bhatpura village in Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.
According to police, Mochi's vehicle was intercepted and stopped for checking by the team in the Kharapathar area. They recovered 466.38 grams of chitta from his possession.
He was going to deliver the drugs to the kingpin of the gang in Rohru, they said.
"Links of the accused arrested have been established with one Shahi Mahatma in the Rohru area, who is an agent dealing in selling and purchasing of apples and other fruits and running a drug business in the Rohru area for several years. A team has been dispatched to arrest him and he will be in custody soon," SP Shimla Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told the PTI on Thursday evening.
"Shahi Mahatma is the main kingpin of an interstate drug racket spread in the states of Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir besides Himachal Pradesh. He was a major supplier of drugs and was prevalent in Rohru and adjoining areas", he said.
There were 5 FIRs registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against nine persons who were part of the drug racket of Shahi Mahatma, he said.
A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused Mudasir, police said.
This year so far, the Shimla police has arrested 356 people in 180 NDPS cases out of which 86 were from outside the state. The highest number of outsiders arrested were from Punjab (42) and Nepal (20), the police said.