Druglord fails to sniff cops’ presence, held in encounter | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The police on Monday arrested a drug trafficker who allegedly headed an interstate–international drug supply network operating across Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Lucknow and extending into Nepal and Bangladesh. The accused, Pankaj Tripathi, carried a Rs 50,000 reward for his arrest. A resident of Kaushambi and the suspected ringmaster of the network, Tripathi was shot in the right leg during retaliatory firing near the Kankaha outpost in Mohanlalganj. He was intercepted while riding a motorcycle with his close aide Narendra, also from Kaushambi. SP, Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), Chakresh Mishra said that Tripathi was the key handler of a narcotics pipeline that sourced contraband from eastern UP and channelled it through Prayagraj, Kaushambi and Lucknow for onward smuggling into Nepal and Bangladesh via organised courier routes and local carriers. Investigators said the cartel was active for several years and linked to multiple NDPS cases.Tripathi was wanted in a narcotics case registered at Saini police station in Kaushambi and recently resurfaced in Lucknow to revive the supply chain. A special surveillance team of ANTF was monitoring his movements for weeks. “Pankaj’s catch was important as till now the teams arrested couriers or carriers of narcotics but not a gang leader himself,” said Mishra.
