PATNA, May 15 -- Bootleggers in dry Bihar have literally taken a leaf out of reel smugglers' methods to hoodwink the state police. They are using written codes on tejpatta (bay leaf) and currency notes to transport and deliver consignments to target groups, police officers said. Police and excise department officials busted such a case in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday when liquor traffickers were caught using a Rs.1 currency note and a code scribed on a bay leaf to smuggle liquor in the area. Moreover, these runners were using homeopathic medicine bottles to transport the spirit. The police-excise department team not only seized a huge quantity of spirit but also uncovered an illegal liquor manufacturing unit, said an official in the know. The excise department also seized 20 cartons of Wheezal Dilution Sepia-6 and Wheezal Dilution Justicia Adhatoda 30C -- two homeopathic medicines said to be banned in Bihar. The smugglers had packed the spirit in homeopathic medicine bottles to dupe the police. The consignment was coming from Uttarakhand, police said, adding that the smugglers had written codes on a currency note and bay leaf. These codes were to be matched to confirm the identity of the deliverers by the receivers of the consignment just like what has been shown in old Bollywood flicks. Officers who took part in the operation said it was based on a tip-off received by the excise department that a consignment of spirit, disguised as homeopathic medicine had arrived in Muzaffarpur via a bus at the Bariya Bus stand in the Ahiapur police station area. An excise department team led by Inspector Deepak Kumar Singh intercepted a suspicious auto-rickshaw near the Patahu airport field and recovered 180 litres of spirit. The smuggler caught from the vehicle was identified as Suraj Kumar, a resident of Salha in the Mushari police station area. During interrogation, a 'code number' found with him was decoded and police reached Mohammadpur Khaje village under the limits of Karja police station area. A raid was carried out at Sumit Patel's poultry farm, where an illegal liquor manufacturing unit was being run by Patel and Neeraj Sahni. The excise team seized another 150 litres of spirit from this factory, along with thousands of wrappers of reputed liquor companies, 900 empty bottles of different IMFL companies, cap colouring material, mineral water bottles, an alcohol metre and other suspicious items from the spot. A police officer said that the investigation revealed the poultry farm was being used to manufacture spurious foreign liquor. "The smugglers first stuffed liquor into homeopathic medicine bottles and then took it to Delhi by bus. It was taken to Muzaffarpur by another bus from Delhi. After reaching Muzaffarpur, local smugglers were used to send it to safe bases through small commercial vehicles. The code number played the most important role in this entire network; without it, delivery was not possible," Inspector Deepak Kumar Singh added. Police said that based on information divulged by the arrested spirit smuggler, the kingpins of the ring have been identified. However, the racket's kingpin Raja Kumar alias Raja Shah, poultry farm owner Sumit Patel, and his partners Neeraj Sahni, Sonu Rai and Dhheraj Rai managed to flee as soon as the raid was conducted at the liquor factory. With the arrest of these absconding smugglers, more big names will be exposed and the bigger illicit liquor networks in the state will come to light, said the excise department officials....