Officers of the Uttar Pradesh STF stopped a truck packed with ganja at the Bharatkund toll plaza in Ayodhya and arrested one person at the scene.[1][2][3][4][5] The Lucknow STF team had been operating in the Sultanpur area when it received intelligence that ganja was being brought from Odisha in a 14-tyre truck and set up a blockade at the toll plaza.[4] Officers stopped Irshad around 11:50 am under the jurisdiction of Purakalandar police station.[5] The operation took place on Tuesday, 10 November 2026.[5] The alleged ringleader Ikramuddin remained at large and STF teams were searching for him.[6][7][4][5] Investigators identified Ikramuddin as the truck owner, from Bhadpur in Haryana’s Palwal district.[5] A case under sections 8, 20, 29 and 60 of the NDPS Act was registered as crime number 740/2026 at Purakalandar police station in Ayodhya.[2][5] The consignment had come from Odisha and was to be delivered to Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh.[6][3] Under the plan, a buyer was to telephone that number once the truck reached Bahraich so delivery could take place after confirmation from the truck owner.[4] An unidentified man arrived there around 1 am, spoke to the truck owner by phone, returned about three hours later after loading more than 433 kg of ganja, and gave Irshad the vehicle keys with a Lava keypad mobile phone and SIM card.[4] Irshad told investigators he had carried peaches from Jalandhar in Punjab to Angul in Odisha, where Ikramuddin instructed him by phone to park near a petrol pump on the Sonepur road past the Angul toll plaza.[4] Officers also seized a 14-tyre truck bearing registration RJ-32-GC-0487 along with a mobile phone, a SIM card and a driving licence.[2] Officers also recovered a PAN card and other identity documents from the truck.[4] The arrested man was identified as Mohammad Irshad, aged about 35, of Lohinga Kala village in Mewat, Haryana.[2][5] Police reported that the arrested suspect faced previous cases registered in 2022 at Kosikalan police station in Mathura under attempt to murder, the NDPS Act, and the Gangster Act.[3] Officers seized about 433.930 kg of ganja valued at about Rs 1.25 crore.[6][7][4][5] The ganja was being carried concealed in the truck in a large quantity.[1][3] The 14 sacks of ganja were concealed between boxes of pottery dust loaded in the truck to disguise the shipment.[3]