Acting on a tip-off, Narcotics Control Bureau sleuths intercepted a speeding car along Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu highway, north of Chennai and a check revealed concealment of 220 kg of ganja in the vehicle.

The police said that the vehicle’s registration number was fake. Sheik Ansar, Sheik Ahmed, and Sushil Thakrae from Amaravati district, Maharashtra were arrested, and the car seized. Interestingly, the car, registered in the name of one of the arrested persons, had the original registration number in the front and a fake one in the rear.

During interrogation, the accused confessed that the contraband was trafficked allegedly on the directions of a person identified as Israeli, who supplied ganja to various places on demand. An NCB official said that Israeli sources ganja from an area in Andhra-Odisha border and thereafter uses his gang to smuggle the contraband to the destination. As of now, a kilogram of ganja is sold between Rs 15,000 to 20,000 depending on the request. The seized contraband has been estimated to be worth Rs 44 lakh.

Three weeks ago, NCB sleuths had arrested a duo and had seized 150 kg ganja from them. But one of the accused, Raghuraman, escaped when he was taken to Avadi government hospital for a test.