After Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Friday conducted raids in multiple locations in three separate districts of Tripura and searched the residence of a police official and premises of several people allegedly involved in drug smuggling and money laundering cases, the ED on Saturday issued an official statement over their  raids in Tripura.

The statement said that “ED, Agartala has conducted coordinated search operations across multiple locations in Tripura on 10.01.2025, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) targeting inter-state drug cartels involved in the trafficking of narcotic substances, including Ganja and Phensedyl. During the search operations, a substantial amount (around 66 kgs) of high quality Ganja (marijuana) along with other incriminating evidence, including financial records, details of benami properties, and electronic devices were recovered and seized.”

Earlier, since early hours of Friday, the ED officials conducted the raids and examined documents and various papers of the persons allegedly involved in the drug business and money laundering. These raids were mainly conducted in various places of three districts including West Tripura, South Tripura and Sepahijala.

Around 250 security personnel, including the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans, assisted the ED teams during the raids.

On January 10th,  at around 6 AM, a massive raid was launched by ED in Tripura primarily in Agartala, Belonia, Baikhora and Kalamchowra against the main kingpins , masterminds of drug trafficking engaged in Ganja and Yaba tablet smuggling.

A total of seven individuals have been targeted by ED, identified as Apu Ranjan Das, Debabrata Dey, Bishu Tripura, Kamini Debbarma, Tapas Debnath, Litan Saha and  Dhruba Majumdar

Among these individuals, Dhruba Majumdar is an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in Tripura police and is presently deployed at Crime Branch Section under SP, South Tripura district and his residence at Baikhora and is learnt to be a habitual offender.

As per official sources it is learnt that there is a link of Tripura Gramin Bank (TGB) too in this drug trafficking racket with some money trails linked to that bank. Last night on January 9th night, ED summoned bank officials of a Tripura Gramin Bank branch and forced them to open the branch late at night.

According to the sources, the raids were conducted at the offices and residences of several key persons, who run the cross-border rackets from behind and so far, remained untouched by the law enforcing agencies, specially by Tripura police.

The ED team has also scrutinized documents, digital evidence and other materials that could provide leads in dismantling the suspected nexus involving drug traffickers and financial offenders.

In Agartala, the ED raided the houses of several illegal drug traders who have been doing the business engaging unemployed youths.

The ED sleuths also summoned some Tripura Gramin Bank officials and questioned them on Saturday.

Meanwhile, just before the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections, the ED conducted raids in different places of West Tripura and Sepahijala districts as part of their investigation relating to drug trafficking cases and seized documents on bank deposits worth Rs 2 crore.