The truck driver, Bhairaram Ramaram Tarad, a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan, was found with the seized contraband.A JOINT operation by the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the newly-formed Anti-Narcotics Wing (ANW) of the Ahmedabad Rural Police on the Kheda–Dholka Highway led to the seizure of 696.940 kg of poppy straw (posh doda) worth around Rs 1.45 crore. An offence was registered under the NDPS Act at Dholka Rural Police Station, police said on Saturday.Sub-inspector I K Shaikh received confidential information that the driver of a truck-trailer was transporting a large consignment of poppy husk — an intoxicating narcotic substance — from Nagpur (Maharashtra) to Sanand (Gujarat), concealed beneath a load of steel coils.The SOG team kept a close watch on the movements of the truck and its driver. “Upon receiving specific information that the vehicle would pass along the Kheda-Dholka Highway on the night of October 8, a joint operation was conducted by the SOG and ANW teams. During the inspection, the tarpaulin covering the coil loaded on the trailer was removed, revealing a large quantity of illegal poppy straw concealed behind the coil in a total of 36 black and yellow plastic sacks,” said a statement issued by the Ahmedabad Rural Police.On the modus operandi of the gang, the police said, “The accused truck driver left from Nagpur (Maharashtra) carrying steel coils destined for a firm in Sanand. En route, near Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh), the consignor loaded sacks filled with poppy husk onto the trailer; these were concealed beneath a tarpaulin alongside the steel coils to make the shipment appear as ordinary industrial cargo, with the intent of delivering the consignment to a receiver in Gujarat for a freight charge of Rs2,00,000.”The truck driver, Bhairaram Ramaram Tarad, a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan, was found with the seized contraband. He was booked in an FIR at Dholka Rural Police Station under sections 8(c), 15(c), and 29 of the NDPS Act, and further legal proceedings are underway.