Lucknow, Aug 24 (IANS) Five drug peddlers were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district and heroin worth Rs.1 crore was seized from them, police said Tuesday.

The five men were nabbed late Monday from a hotel in the Charkhambhakua area following a joint operation by the police and sleuths of the Special Operation Group (SOG).

‘Acting on a tip-off that the five men were looking for prospective buyers for the illegal consignment of drugs, some police officials approached them posing as buyers,’ police inspector Rishipal Singh told reporters in Kanpur, some 80 km from Lucknow.

‘Once it was confirmed that the five were involved in the illegal trade, they were arrested from the Namaskar hotel,’ he said.

According to police, those arrested hail from Agra and Kanpur and had their clients in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

‘The five have been booked under multiple sections of the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. They are being interrogated to gather more information about other gang members involved in the illegal trade,’ said Singh.