Online marijuana smuggling racket busted in Madhya Pradesh, Amazon under police scanner

BHOPAL: Premier online shopping and e-commerce platform Amazon is under Madhya Pradesh police scanner following the arrest of two men in the central Indian state’s Bhind district. The two men arrested with 20 kg ganja (marijuana) were found to be using the top online shopping platform for smuggling the contraband narcotic substance from Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) to Madhya Pradesh.

The two men identified as Suraj alias Kallu Pavaiya (native of Morar in Gwalior) and Pintu alias Bijendra Singh Tomar (who runs a roadside dhaba in Bhind district) were arrested with 20 kg ganja. The ganja consignment was sourced from Visakhapatnam using the Amazon platform.

“Subsequent investigation based on the grilling of the arrested duo has revealed that they had been sourcing the contraband narcotic substance using the major online shopping platform since the last four months.  Around one tonnes of ganja (marijuana) had already been sourced by them in the last four months using the same platform. Monetary transactions worth Rs 1.10 crore had taken place during the last four months,” Bhind district police superintendent Manoj Kumar Singh told The New Indian Express on Saturday.  

Based on the duo’s grilling, an aide of the arrested men has been picked up for questioning in Haridwar (Uttarakhand). The ganja sourced by the racket from Andhra Pradesh was not only sold from the roadside dhaba in Bhind, but also supplied to other parts of MP, including capital Bhopal, Dewas, Agar-Malwa and Gwalior districts, besides Kota district of Rajasthan and Haridwar (Uttarakhand).

Further probe revealed that the narcotic racket, that the racket’s kingpin Suraj Pavaiya had registered as a seller of herbal products and Curry Leaves with the top online shopping portal using details of a Gujarat-based textile company and also subsequently got the power to generate barcode from the same portal.

“The arrested duo’s grilling has also revealed that over 66% of the share of the monetary transactions went to the online shopping major. We’re going to send notice to Amazon soon, as the online shopping portal has failed on multiple counts to check this nefarious online smuggling of the narcotic substance. If further probe establishes that the online shopping platform too is at fault and part of the crime, then it will be booked under 29 NDPS Act” the Bhind district police chief said.