Berhampur: With the festive season fast approaching, police intensified the rive against illegal firecracker business in Odisha’s Ganjam district on Thursday.

As part of the crackdown, a police team raided a godown and seized firecrackers worth over Rs ten lakh and detained one person at Sundarpur under the jurisdiction of Chhatrapur police station in the district.

As per sources, Chhatrapur police along with a magistrate carried out searches in the warehouse after getting a tip-off about illegal firecrackers being stocked at the site.

Acting on intelligence inputs, a team conducted the raid at three houses of one Papun Patra in Tower Sahi. During the search operation, crackers were found to be stored without any proper license which is a violation of safety guidelines. Preliminary assessment of the seized firecrackers is said to be over Rs 10 lakh.

Investigation is in progress to ascertain the source of firecrackers and the possibility of a larger network operating in the area, police said. More raids will be carried out in coming days to curb illegal storage and sale of firecrackers which pose a threat to safety during festivities, they added.