It has pressed various police teams into service. The teams have succeeded in nabbing notorious smugglers and recovering huge quantity of narcotics.

Mr L. K. Yadav, SSP, talking to TNS today, pointed out that in the past seven days, the district police had seized more than 24 kg of opium and more than 950 kg of poppy husk from nine smugglers.This recovery was unprecedented.

He said not only this, Maghi Mela was used as an occasion to educate and motivate people to fight the social evil.

A police station depicting policing during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was set up at the mela where a number of steps were undertaken to educate about 50,000 people about the menace of drugs.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that the smugglers had been trying to bring the narcotics into this district for sale to prospective buyers at the mela , cashing in on the fact that the police would be then busy making security arrangements.

This district has become prone to rampant smuggling due to its geographical location as it shares borders with two states,Haryana and Rajasthan.

Due to porous borders, inter-state gangs of smugglers have been operating in this area freely. Even women with their faces veiled have been active in this illegal activity.

Mr Yadav said intelligence inputs revealed that most of the opium and poppy husk came to this district from Rajasthan and Haryana .The police had identified specific sites from where large quantities of opium and poppy husk was being sent to this district.

He pointed out that new strategies were being worked out to curb smuggling and cooperation of the people had been sought in this task.

Police sources said in the past few years, the district had witnessed a significant jump in the smuggling of smack and heroin. The number of women joining this illegal trade had also been on the rise.