Kohima Police on Tuesday arrested two persons for possessing 82.5 kg of opium.
The arrested persons have been identified as Raju Ram and Sharvan Ram Choudhary from Rajasthan.
As per reports, Raju Ram is a resident of Bisalpur and Sharvan Ram Choudary is a resident of Jodhpur district.
They were apprehended by police at the Narcotics check gate in Khuzama.
A case has been registered against the duo under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 at the Narcotics Police Station in the police headquarters of Nagaland.
Also read: Opium consignment seized in Arunachal Pradesh
According to reports, police seized 78 packets of opium which were concealed in the seats of a vehicle and spare tyres.
Police have started investigation to gather more details regarding the case.
According to a report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent body for the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions, India grows more opium illicitly than the legal cultivation.
The report also said the area under illicit opium poppy cultivation eradicated in India in 2017 exceeded the area under legal cultivation during the same crop year.
The report said: “The authorities eradicated an area under illicit opium poppy cultivation covering more than 3,000 hectares, the largest for the last five years, while opium poppy was grown legally on 2,322.5 hectares of land licensed for cultivation by the Central Bureau of Narcotics.”
India accounted for 6 per cent of the world’s cannabis herb (ganja) seizures in 2016 (nearly 300 tons) and reported seizing even higher quantities in 2017, about 353 tons, representing a 20 per cent increase compared with 2016.
The figures for 2017 are the highest in India during the period 2013-2018, the INCB observed.