Kakinada: Ganja worth Rs1 crore seized, five smugglers arrested

Kakinada: The East Godavari district police arrested five persons and seized 1,000 kgs ganja worth Rs 1 crore during a vehicle check at Godlagudem junction of Mothugudem PS limits in Chinturu Agency on Sunday.

They also seized a lorry, 2 motor vehicles, 7 mobile phones and Rs 5,000 in cash, informed District Superintendent of Police M Ravindranath Babu on Monday.

The arrested persons were identified as Manmohan Patel, Mohammad Haaran, Robin Mandal, Amruta Biswas and Basudeb Mandal.

Chinturu Circle Inspector G Yuva Kumar and Mothugudem Sub-Inspector V Sathibabu were conducting the vehicle check and when they checked the vehicles, they found the dry ganja.

SP Ravindranath Babu said that as per the directives of Director General of Police (DGP) Gowtam Sawang, they kept a vigil on illicit trading of ganja in the Chinturu agency.

He said that day and night they are checking the vehicles to detect if there is any ganja transported. He said that the ganja being transported from Odisha to Uttar Pradesh via Chinturu agency was caught by the police.

Three accused were smuggling ganja in a vehicle with coconut load.

SP Ravindranath Babu said that ganja cultivated in Odisha is transported to Chinturu agency and from there it is being transported to other States. He said that the smugglers are adopting various methods for smuggling ganja, particularly using motor vehicles.