3 held with 100kg ganja smuggled from C’garh

Ghaziabad: Three persons, including a woman, were arrested in Kotwali area with 100kg of ganja worth Rs 10 lakh that they had allegedly smuggled from Chhattisgarh. Police have also seized from them a Tata Safari that they had modified to hide the contraband inside the doors and below the seats.
In the past one year, the gang had conducted 13-14 trips of Chhattisgarh and smuggled ganja worth Rs 1.5 crore into the city. The arrest comes close on the heels of a recovery of 1,800kg of pseudoephedrine from a house in neighbouring Greater Noida. Police said the trio were caught near a police check-post set up at Sadik ki Pulia in Kotwali area. Asked to stop, six people who were inside the Safari started to run. Three were caught, the others managed to escape.
Police said the ganja was to be supplied to a fruit dealer in the city, who, in turn, would have sent the packets to his associates in Noida, Delhi and Guargaon. The three arrested persons have been identified as Noor Mohammad, a resident of Bihar, Gaurav Jain, who is from Baghpat, and Amna Begum, from Ghaziabad’s Sudamapuri area.
SP (city) Shlok Kumar said each of the three accused acted as a carrier for the fruit dealer — “Pandey” — and were paid Rs 20,000 per trip.
“During questioning, they told police they would drive to Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur and leave the vehicle in a jungle for some time. By the time they returned, the vehicle would be loaded with narcotics. The consignment was finally brought here and handed over to Pandey,” the SP said.
“We have got leads in the case and are acting on them. Our prime objective is to catch the mastermind. Moreover, we are trying to ascertain the criminal history of the accused. So far, we have come to know that Noor Mohammad was once caught by Kerala Police in connection with mining-related offence and sent to jail. After his release, he started driving a truck in Raipur,” he added.
Police said the gang included the woman as that would give an impression to cops that they were a family. They have told police that they believed cops didn’t check vehicles with families.
According to police, each drug consignment fetches 50 to 100 times more money when smuggled into Delhi-NCR. “For instance, ganja, which is grown in Maoist-affected areas in Chhattisgarh, are sold for Rs 100 a kg there. But in Delhi-NCR, the rate goes up to Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per kg,” Kumar said.