Two held with hashish oil worth Rs 20 crore

Thiruvananthapuram: In a major drug haul, the city police on Wednesday nabbed two men with 10kg of hashish oil, which would fetch up to Rs 20 crore in foreign markets.
The police identified the accused as Sunny (39) and Saibu Thankachan, (27), both hailing from Rajakkad in Idukki district. They were caught by a team of shadow cops from Golf Links near Kowdiar around 11am on Wednesday based on reliable information received by the police. The team also confiscated a car owned by Thankachan, in which they had hidden cans filled with hashish oil.

Addressing media persons, city police commissioner P Prakash said that owing to the presence of international airport and proximity to the sea, the capital city has become a transit point for the drug mafia and hence rising number of catches here.

The men who were arrested on Wednesday too were heading towards airport when they were intercepted and arrested. They had stored the contraband in cans of food that were commonly exported from here to foreign countries. The accused were being interrogated to know more about the source and destination of the seized contraband, the commissioner said.

‘’Majority of the costly drugs we catch here are meant for international markets,” Prakash said adding that drugs have great demand in international tourist spots in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Among the accused, Sunny is an accused in a murder case registered at Santhanpara police station in Idukki. The case pertained to murdering a man using a locally-made gun. He was out on bail and was engaged in cultivation of ganja deep inside the forests in Idukki.

In May this year, the city police had arrested three Maldivians with 17 kg of hashish oil. Hashish oil is a derivative of ganja, which is extracted from ganja leaves. Around 15 to 20kg of ganja has to be processed to extract 1kg of hashish oil and hence it is very costly. Even though 1kg of hashish oil could be locally secured for around Rs 1 lakh, the same amount of stuff would fetch more than Rs 1 crore once it reaches international market, said the police.

During the past five months, excise officials in the city too had made three major catches of hashish oil and in all cases, the accused persons arrested had links in Idukki district.