Nearly a month after 13 kg of ganja was found abandoned in two separate lots in as many locations near Pattimattom, the Kunnathunadu police on Thursday arrested two persons in this connection from Pattambi.
The arrested were identified as Devadas, 45, of Tirur in Malappuram, and Muhammed Shafi, 36, of Nilambur. The police also allegedly seized 3 kg of ganja from them.
A special investigation squad formed by K. Karthik, District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural), to probe the twin case has been looking into criminals with drug-related antecedents. This eventually led them to the accused.
The police had suspected that whoever were involved in smuggling the narcotic may have abandoned it on spotting a police patrol team, and this turned out to be the case going by the reported confessions of the accused. A police patrol team was doing the rounds in the early hours of October 26 when the ganja packets were abandoned.
The contraband was recovered in two lots containing 2 kg and 11 kg from two separate locations. The first package along the Pattimattom-Kizhakkamabalam road was found by a youngster who mistook it for a courier packet that had accidentally fallen off a vehicle and brought it to the police.
No sooner was it found than a few more packets containing 11 kg of ganja were recovered from a rubber plantation not far away. A tapping worker had found the suspicious packages when he turned up for work in the morning. He promptly alerted the plantation owner, who in turn, informed the police. On opening it at the station, the police found ganja in five tightly sealed packets covered with brown paper.
All the packages were similarly packaged, leading to the suspicion that they were part of the same consignment. Ganja trade has been common in Kunnathunadu limits with a large migrant population, though things were quiet during the lockdown and the months immediately after that.
A team led by Perumbavoor DySP K. Bijumon, Kunnathunadu Inspector V.T. Shajan, sub inspector Sajan O.V., and senior civil police officers Abdul Manaf P.A., Naushad K.A., Ajith V.R., and Anoop P.S., made the arrest.
