The slackness in vigil on highways because of the lockdown has boosted the flow of marijuana and charas into the city, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials said on Sunday.

The bureau has seized around 3,000kg of marijuana over the past fortnight, an official of the agency said. Before the lockdown, the bureau would typically seize around 500kg in a fortnight.

“The vigil on highways has slackened as the authorities are having to deploy men to enforce lockdown in Covid containment zones, spread awareness on the disease and to ensure people are maintaining physical distancing. Smugglers are taking advantage of the slackness,” an official of the bureau said.

Besides, drug dealers are using vehicles with “Emergency Supplies” or “Emergency Services” stickers pasted on their windshields to smuggle charas and marijuana into Bengal.

“Even when a vehicle is stopped, cops are not checking it thoroughly for fear of contracting the coronavirus,” said Sudhangshu Singh, the director of the NCB, Calcutta zone.

According to him, marijuana is selling at a record high of Rs 10,000 a kg in the illegal drug market. The rate normally varies between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000 a kg.

An NCB official said there had been a rise in the flow of marijuana and charas from the Northeast, Odisha and Cooch Behar, among other places.

The jump in rates has raised the stakes, prompting drug dealers to take more risks. “If you are a dealer and you’re trying to get 1,000kg of marijuana smuggled into Bengal, you will typically split it into four consignments of 250kg each. If one gets caught, three will manage to enter the state. But because of high rates, they’re either sending two lots of 500kg each or one consignment of 1,000kg,” the official said.

The bureau had intercepted a truck on Saturday and seized 1,301kg of marijuana on the National Highway 12, near Nadia’s Paglachandi. The contraband was stashed inside plastic crates kept on top of one another in the truck.

The driver and the helper told the police that the consignment had been loaded on the truck in Cooch Behar.

On Thursday, a pick-up truck and a container truck ferrying around 435kg of ganja together were stopped near Bongaon, in North 24-Parganas. The consignments were allegedly from Odisha and were meant for dealers in Bongaon, who would have distributed them in the city and its adjoining areas.

On June 29, a truck carrying coconuts was stopped near the Dhulagarh toll plaza by NCB officials. The team found packets of marijuana concealed inside the coconuts. Eight men were arrested.