A large consignment of cannabis, allegedly being transported to Surat via Mumbai, was intercepted by the JJ Marg police during a routine check near the Mumbai Central railway station around 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
“We were conducting random checks in the morning when we saw two men walking towards Mumbai Central. Their behaviour and body language seemed suspicious, so we stopped them. When we asked them simple questions like where they had come from and where they were going, we found their answers to be evasive, and so we searched the four bags they were carrying,” senior police inspector Shirish Gaikwad, JJ Marg police station, said.
Mr. Gaikwad said the bags were found to contain large packets of cannabis, weighing 64 kg in all. The two men, Prakash Lenka (45) and Narayan Vishal (22), were taken to the police station with the seized drugs and placed under arrest.
“During interrogation, they revealed that they had arrived in Mumbai from Odisha by the Konark Express early on Tuesday and were going to take the drugs onwards to Surat. We are interrogating them further to identify the recipient and the source of the drugs,” Mr. Gaikwad said.
The JJ Marg police will also contact the police in Gujarat and Odisha to share their findings and to seek information relating to the case. The police in Ganjam district, Odisha, from where the men hail, are being contacted to find out if they have any criminal record.
Investigating officers said the men seemed to be part of a typical drug supply racket, in which people from financially backward households who are desperate for money are picked to deliver drugs for a hefty fee. “As there is no dearth of such people in any State, drug dealers find a steady trickle of drug mules willing to take the risk. So the dealers can use different mules for every trip, which minimises their risk,” an officer who is part of the investigation said.