Peddlers share info about ganja network with police in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: West Zone police on Thursday convened a meeting with 130 ganja peddlers and took inputs from them to crack down on the network. As part of the initiative to rehabilitate ganja peddlers, Inspector General of Police (West Zone)  R Sudhakar, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Coimbatore range) MS Muthusamy and Superintendent of Police V Badrinarayanan attended the meeting.

“We want to make Coimbatore a ganja-free district and West Tamil Nadu as ganja-free zone in the State. We held a meeting with ganja peddlers of Coimbatore district and received valuable information about their network and suppliers,” Sudhakar said, adding police have information that ganja peddlers used social media to supply to customers.

“We won’t reveal the identity of our sources in any situation and our aim is to eradicate narcotic drugs from the root level. Information about networks, received from the peddlers, were given to the police officers of the respective limits and they will initiate further action on it. Though they have previous crime record, the peddlers still resort to peddling. After assessing their needs, we will arrange rehabilitation for them. Superintendents of Police in the zone will hold similar meetings with ganja peddlers in their districts ,” he added.

According to sources, this year, Coimbatore District (Rural) police registered 332 cases and seized 525.5 kg of ganja worth Rs 52.65 lakh till October 18. They  arrested 457 peddlers and seized 95 vehicles from them. “Mostly, ganja is brought from Odisha and Tripura. We are taking action against the smugglers with the help of Government Railway Police,” he further said.