Two Tamil Nadu men caught while smuggling 80 kg ganja

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police have arrested two Tamil Nadu natives suspected to be part of the gang that supplies ganja to dealers in the city and recovered the contraband weighing 80 kg.

Vairamuthu, 27, of Usilampatti and Malaichaami, 42, of Krishna Nagar were arrested by the Nemom police from Pallichal during a vehicle search on Friday.

The ganja was concealed in 40 packets, each weighing about two kilos. The whole package is estimated to fetch Rs 20 lakh in the domestic market. City Police commissioner S Surendran said the duo brought the drug from Andhra Pradesh and transferred it to Kerala via Tamil Nadu.

The inputs regarding such a gang that supplies drugs to wholesale dealers were collected during ‘Operation Cobra’. Under the drive, wholesale ganja dealers in the city were kept under surveillance for several days and the information collected from them resulted in the arrest, the commissioner said.

Surendran said they have gleaned vital information from the duo regarding the gangs that peddle drugs in the city and further arrests would be made soon. “There are gangs that sell narcotics to school and college students. The arrested also used to supply ganja to students. Names of some of the local dealers have popped up while quizzing them,” Surendran added.

The police will mount surveillance on seasoned drug peddlers, some of them have more than 15 years of experience in the field, as well as new entrants to plug the ganja sales. So far, about 176 ganja beedis were seized from the city in the last one month.

Surendran said the arrested duo has confessed to successfully smuggling ganja to the city before.
The Tamil Nadu police have also been alerted and they are expected to check whether the arrested have drug cases pending against them there.  The arrests were carried out by Nemom station officers, including Inspector Pradeep, Sub-inspectors Saji, Sanju Joseph and Shadow team members Sunil Lal and ASI Gopakumar.

Loan sharks arrested

Several arrests were recorded in the city limits after the city police in connivance with the Revenue Department officers conducted searches at the residences of loan sharks.The police have been collecting details of such people who fleece people by collecting a huge margin of interest from them.

The raid started on Friday morning and lasted for several hours. Several documents, including land documents, registration certificates of vehicles, promissory notes and unaccounted cash to the tune of several lakhs were recovered.

Ajil Kumar, 50, of Ajil Bhavan of Kazhakuttom, Shajahan, 48, of Maithri Manzil in Vizhinjam, Sabu, 31, of Bablu Bhavan near Vazhichal and Suresh Kumar, 53, of Neyyur near Iriniyal were among those whose arrests were recorded.