In a joint operation, the Ernakulam Rural police and the District Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force arrested three persons, including a couple, with around 225 kg of ganja worth nearly ₹5,62,500, on the national highway at Karukutty near Angamaly on Monday.
Kalapurakkal Anas, 41, of Perumbavoor, Faisal, 35, of Okkal, and wife Varsha, 22, of Shankumukham were intercepted while they were smuggling in the narcotic in two separate cars reportedly from Andhra Pradesh to Perumbavoor around 7 a.m. on the day. Anas is an accused in several criminal cases, including ganja smuggling.
The gang was reportedly under surveillance based on a tip-off received by District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) K. Karthik. The contraband was found hidden in tightly sealed packets of 2 kg each in the boot and under the seats.
The accused allegedly attempted to flee by attacking the team, which intercepted them. They are suspected to have smuggled in the narcotic in the past too.
The modus operandi was that the gang handed over the vehicles to agents along an isolated stretch of the national highway in Andhra Pradesh, and the latter delivered the vehicles back stuffed with ganja. The plan was that even if one of the vehicles was intercepted, the other could try to evade it with the contraband.
They had reportedly bought ganja at anything between ₹2,000 and ₹3,000 to make a windfall back here by selling it at seven- to eight-fold of that price.
The Ernakulam Rural police limits have emerged as a major transit point for ganja smuggling, mostly from the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha belt, going by frequent drug seizures. In the last two-and-a-half years alone, the Rural police have seized 260-odd kg of ganja, and the latest seizure has almost doubled it in a single go.
Last month, the police had seized 31 kg of ganja smuggled in through a Perumbavoor-based courier company.
In November last year, the Rural police, in association with DANSAF, had seized 140 kg of ganja in two separate operations. In the first, which was similar to the seizure on Monday, the police team intercepted three accused in two cars at Angamaly and seized from them 105 kg of ganja in 50 tightly sealed packs. Their interrogation led to the seizure of another 35 kg of ganja found hidden in 17 similarly sealed packets in a rented house at Avoli in Ernakulam.
Following the frequent seizures, Mr. Karthik had constituted a special squad to probe ganja-related cases led by narcotic cell DySP Zachariah Mathew, Aluva DySP P.K. Sivankutty, and Inspectors Sony Mathai, K.J. Peter, and P.M. Baiju.
