Ganja smuggling kingpin held from Andhra Pradesh

KOCHI

: In a secretive mission carried out by the state police to crackdown on the

ganja smuggling racket

in the state,

Ernakulam rural police

arrested a 26-year-old, who is allegedly the

kingpin

of the gang that leads the interstate smuggling of the contraband. The arrested was identified as

Pallasreenivasa Rao

, a native of Makavarapalem in Andhra Pradesh.

A special squad formed by the district police chief (Ernakulam rural) K Karthik to probe the interstate ganja smuggling activities nabbed the accused in his own turf in Andhra Pradesh by luring him into a trap. It took a three-day-long operation carried out in a secluded area 300km from

Vijayawada

to nab the accused, who works as a taxi-driver there.

According to police, Rao, who has close links in the tribal belt of the region, was the main mediator for interstate ganja peddling between Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. He has been the prime contact person for

Malayalis

engaged in

ganja sales

.

Rao is suspected to have helped smuggling thousands of kilograms of ganja into Kerala over these years. He came into the limelight when police seized 105kg ganja from two luxury cars at Angamaly KSRTC recently. Based on information from the persons who were arrested in that case, Karthik formed the special squad, expanding the probe to AP.

“The modus operandi was that Rao meets potential buyers along the National Highway there to take orders based on samples of ganja provided to them. Once the clients agree to the price and quality of ganja, Rao would go into the forest and come back with the full load. The customers often had to wait for hours in prescheduled areas to receive the ganja,” said the police.

Police approached Rao pretending to be customers and trapped him. Though he tried to flee, police outran and arrested him. Police said that it was a risky operation as the area was said to have Maoist presence.

Police believe that Rao’s arrest will help them find more leads about the network supplying ganja to Kerala. The police team consisted of Narcotic Cell DSP K Ashwakumar inspector M Surendran, sub inspector T M Soofy, senior civil police officers Rony Augustine, P S Jeemon, and Prasad.