Mangaluru: Karnataka police arrested four member inter-state gang that was involved in a Ganja smuggling and seized 200 kgs of this banned substance valued around Rs 20 lakh, the Mangaluru police said here on Wednesday.
According to the Mangaluru police, the arrested are identified as Mohammed Farooq (24), and Mohiudeen Nawaz (34) both are from Kasargod, Kerala, while Mohammed Ansar (23) from Mudipu in Mangaluru Sayyed Mohammed (31) from Kushalnagar in Kodagu district of Karnataka.
Mangaluru city police commissioner N. Shashi Kumar told reporters that the Moodbidri police was investigating into case related to a dacoity case and after series of rounding up of criminals, one of them spilled the beans about such huge quantity of Ganja being smuggled from Vishakhapatniam in Andhra Pradesh.
“Based on this information, the Moodbidre police launched a search operation and kept a tight vigil on all entry points. Earlier we had the information from such a huge quantity coming into the state in a fish supply truck. When we waylaid the plush car, the police could seize only 60 kgs of Ganja. But seeing the police, the driver of this car, revealed that they had split the total Ganja packets in other vehicles in Hassan and those vehicles were also approaching in an hour’s time. As per his information, a lorry car approached, when we seized this lorry, packets of Ganja totaling around 157 kgs were concealed in various chambers of this lorry,” the commissioner explained.
The commissioner added that the gang’s intention was to sell a portion of this large quantity to peddlers of Uppala in Mangaluru and majority of the consignment was heading towards Kasaragod in Kerala.
The police has registered a case and is investigating.
