Ganja goes incognito: Chennai trio’s snack packet smuggling scheme foiled by anti-narcotics unit

CHENNAI: Two brothers and their friend hoodwinked securityat Bangkok, Delhi, and Chennai aiports to smuggle out high quality ganja (kush cannabis) valued at 50 lakh, which they sourced from Thailand, but were arrested by the city's anti-narcotics intelligence unit (ANIU) when they stepped out of the airport here.Police said Mohammad Yusuff, 32, his brother Haroon, 30, and their friend Farook, 34, all hailing from Kodungaiyur, had evaded detection by stuffing the narcotic inside packets of snacks. "We stopped the trio outside the airport based on a specific tip off," an investigator said. Initially, ANIU sleuths did not find any contraband on their person or in their baggage. However, officials got suspicious when they found 100 packets of snacks among the clothes in their bags.When a couple of the packets were opened, they only contained eatables. An officer even asked the trio why they brought such cheap snacks from abroad when better stuff was available in any supermarket in the city. But ANIU team decided to do a thorough check and opened all the packets. They found 13 bundles of the narcotic wrapped in polythene covers and stuffed in the packets. "This stuff cannot be traced by the baggage scanner," said aan officer.During interrogation, the trio told police that they bought the narcotic from Ganja Station, a store in Bangkok. In a bid to avoid suspicion, they booked tickets from Bangkok to Delhi and then to Chennai.Police said the three were earlier booked by the Periamet police for smuggling ganja from neighbouring states. They trio will be produced in court on Wednesday.