Hyderabad: Ganja smugglers are finding new ways to protect their property from being seized by the police and avoid losses.

As against the regular practice of bringing the entire consignment of the contraband in the city and storing it at a chosen safe place, the gangs now preferring areas on the outskirts of the city to stash the consignment.

The ganja consignment is usually brought in heavy vehicles from neighboring Odisha and Andhra Pradesh during the night and unloaded at the hideouts outside the city. “Mostly godowns on the city outskirts and industrial clusters are preferred because there is regular movement of heavy vehicles and no one suspects. Moreover, as the areas are vast and remotely populated, police patrolling unlike in the city, is not done there. The smugglers try to utilise these factors for safe holding of their consignment,” said an official of Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force.

In recent cases, the police found that the gangs were taking godowns on rent and also independent houses and factories which are closed down, to store the ganja consignment. “With the help of brokers they manage to take the premises on rent and store the contraband. Whenever the customers or local sellers approach, they ask them to come to the place and sell it in smaller quantities,” said the official.

In recent instances, the police found that the gangs were hiring properties in areas located along the Outer Ring Road to transport the consignments of ganja in DCM or trucks and keep it.

“Nevertheless we are tracking down the peddlers in the city and outskirts and identifying the ‘stock point’. The offenders keep on adopting new techniques, using technology and human intelligence but we are catching up with them and seizing the material,” said the official.

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