Vijayawada: College students are the new face of ganja peddlers

VIJAYAWADA: While Vijayawada has always remained as a major transit point for smuggling ganja, the recent crackdown on few rackets has revealed that the illegal business has spread its fangs in the city at a faster rate as compared to previous years.
Moreover, in what is more alarming is the number of students involved in the illegal trade.
So far, in the last 4 months, 15 students have been arrested for peddling ganja. In the first incident, on June 09, the Commissioner’s Task Force (CTF) arrested six engineering students for peddling ganja within Gannavaram police station limits. In the second, on September 07, nine students from different colleges were arrested for supplying ganja for a huge network knitted through social media groups.
Police sources said that the students are being lured by dealers on a referral basis. “Initially the students are offered free sample packets of ganja. If they (students) like the product, the peddlers ask them to bring in more customers to purchase the product. Along with the ganja, they also make a significant business by selling the ganja smoking apparatus like bongs and pipes,” a task force official told TOI.
Those students who would refer a new customer gets around 30% commission which would roughly earn them between Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per month, an amount perhaps, even trainee engineers would only dream off, the official added.
Cops have also pointed out that a while ago, there were just two major ganja suppliers. However, with the students too being involved in the trade actively, the number of peddlers has increased substantially.
Talking about the rise in smuggling, police officials explained that the dealers from the agency areas themselves are directly involved in transporting the produce to students who in turn get more customers on a referral basis.
During the last two years, police have witnessed a steady rise in the number of ganja cases. Some of the officials have also admitted that the smuggling in the city is way higher as compared to the number of cases registered.
According to the data from the City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB), back in 2005, Vijayawada police commissionerate limits saw just five ganja smuggling cases. However, with time, the number of cases has risen substantially.
The situation is such that in 2016, 32 cases were registered, while in 2017, the number witnessed a quantum jump to 91. In 2018, a whopping 995 kgs of ganja was seized and 19 persons were arrested in total.
Talking about the peddler's way of distribution, CTF sources explained that they directly obtain the produce from Araku where the tribals living in Visakhapatnam and Araku regions sell their supplies to stage one dealer.
The stage one dealers later travel to Anakapalli which is one of the major hubs of ganja dealers and sell their stuff to other dealers who are known as stage two dealers. They then disperse from the spot and travel to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Coimbatore and other parts of South India through Vijayawada. While they transit through Vijayawada, they either store the product in a warehouse or a private residence.
Stage 3 dealers are the ones who would purchase either small or large quantities of ganja from stage two dealers and sell it to the public. Cops also pointed out that most of the small-scale business comes from the other side of the Prakasam Barrage like Undavali.
Within the city Alankar centre, Vijayawada railway station, Gunadala, Gandhinagar, Autonagar gate, near Sharadha College in BRTS road are some of the notorious spots where ganja is sold often.