Incidentally, both Debnath and Adhikari fronted legitimate transport businesses.

NCB (Eastern Zone) Director K Shankar said on Wednesday that the trucks had been detained based on specific information near Chichra check-post.

“We intercepted the trucks at 12.10 am today. In the search that was conducted on both the vehicles, the heroin was recovered from a secret cavity built in the driver’s cabin in one of the trucks. Drivers and helpers of the two trucks — Pradeep Mondal, Sukhen Sarkar, Sujit Sammaddar and Indrajit Sarkar — were interrogated. All belong to Bagda near Bongaon,” Shankar said.

The seizure reiterates the fact that Bongaon is a transit point for heroin produced in the country’s opium belts and is being trafficked to Bangladesh, Shankar added.

The truckers revealed during interrogation they had driven down from Nasik with a consignment of plastic goods to be delivered to a company in Kolkata. En route, they took on the heroin at Dhulia from one Gopal Singh of Rajasthan. From there, they drove down NH-6 and entered West Bengal at Chichra.

“They said the consignment was to be supplied to Debnath in Bongaon and that they were acting on his instructions,” NCB officers said.

Debnath admitted to having ordered the drugs from Singh. “During his interrogation, he said the heroin was to be supplied to Bangla-based drug-traffickers. He stated that he runs a transport business named ‘Debnath Enterprise’ and owns several trucks. He said he frequently procures heroin from Rajashtan and supplies it to Bangladesh,” Shankar said.

In another incident, meanwhile, three persons were arrested while one managed to escape after officials of the detective department intercepted a car near the Race Course which was carrying 900 gram of heroin.