Hyderabad: Drug Peddlers are continuing to use decisive methods to transport Ganja across the states despite the crackdown by enforcement officials.
As much as 1,121 kilos of ganja worth Rs 1.68 crore concealed in fly ash bricks was seized on Wednesday after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) team intercepted the truck in Choutuppal, TOI reports.
Earlier this year, a Hyderabad DRI team had intercepted a gang transporting ganja in an ambulance.
Giving details into the arrest, the DRI team said it intercepted a truck (MH-13R-4039) on Wednesday night at Panthangi toll plaza in Choutuppal after they received some intelligence inputs.
“We saw fly ash bricks in the truck. Three persons in the cabin said they were transporting bricks from Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtra. When we searched the truck, we found 546 bundles of ganja concealed under the bricks,” a DRI official said.
According to the officials the ganja was tightly packed using duct tape to conceal the contraband, when the team had opened the bundles they found and recovered 1121.5 kilos of ganja worth Rs 1.68 crore.
It was during the interrogation, the trio confessed that they had procured ganja from a supplier in Sileru Agency area of Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.
“The gang was transporting the ganja to Solapur in Maharashtra,” the official said.
According to DRI sleuths the ganja is procured at a price about Rs. 2000 per kg from the supplier and the same is sold for about Rs 5,000 a kilo. The retailers pack the ganja into small sachets and, by selling it in streets, make about Rs 15,000 per kilo.
The Excise department officials of Telangana revealed most of the ganja consumed in south India and Maharashtra comes from 13 mandals in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh and 15 mandals of Korapur and Rayagada districts of Odisha.
“Peddlers from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra provide seeds and pay advance amount during the sowing season to cultivators in the Agency areas. They make an oral agreement with the cultivator and purchase the ganja directly from him,” an excise department official said.
Crackdown against the ganja cultivation and peddling is the sole key to prevent drug addiction said a senior DRI official said.