The police have arrested seven youths and seized 50 grams of MDMA, a psychotropic drug.
The arrested have been identified as Pranav Pradeep, 24, of Muthukulam, Sajin Abraham, 25, of Krishnapuram, Sravan Krishnakumar, 23, of Cheppad, Akshaya Omanakuttan, 24, of Muthukulam, Sachin Tensing, 23, of Arattupuzha, Arjun, 23, of Pallippad, and Raghuraman Rajesh, 24, of Muthukulam.
They were taken into custody from a resort near Danapady in Haripad in a joint operation carried out by the Haripad police and the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force on Monday. The raid was conducted based on a tip-off received by District Police Chief G. Jaidev.
From Bengaluru
Officials said that the accused were nabbed while waiting for clients to sell the premium synthetic drug. “They brought the drug in a car from Bengaluru. The group, which was involved in Ganja peddling, only recently shifted to MDMA as it is much easier to transport and handle. They had twice brought MDMA from Bengaluru in recent weeks. They were selling the drug between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000 a gram,” said an official.
Officials said that a Bengaluru-based drug lobby was behind the smuggling of psychotropic drugs like MDMA and LSD to the district. The majority of the clients were youths and students. “We have got some vital information from the arrested about those behind the lobby and the people buying drugs from the group. More arrests will be made in the coming days,” the official added.
Binukumar M.K., Deputy Superintendent of Police, Narcotic Cell; Biju V. Nair, circle inspector, Haripad; and police officers Girish Kumar, Udayan, Suresh, Reji, Nishad, Siju, Ratheeshkumar, Ilyas, Santhosh, Harikrishnan and Shafi took part in the raid.
