Anantapur: 11 smugglers held, 20 kg ganja seized

Anantapur: City police have arrested 11 ganja smugglers and seized 20 kg ganja from them. The arrested are being interrogated to detect their modus operandi, according to SP Jagadeesh at a press conference here on Thursday.

The SP warned youth against falling prey to ganja peddlers and warned that stringent action will be taken against ganja consumers and peddlers. The arrested include Dileep (25) of Koraput district, Odisha; Sake Vinay Kumar (26), Sayed Jabbar (23), M Ramesh (19), C Bhaskar (21), Jayaram (19), Suresh Babu (25), Ahmed (18), Mahendra (19), Pradeep (23) and Imam Basha (23) from Anantapur district.

The SP revealed that Dileep from Odisha is the kingpin behind ganja smuggling while the remaining 10 accused are as peddlers. Dileep has connections with ganja cultivators on AP – Odisha border and transports ganja by a car to Anantapur. He has been selling ganja at Rs 5,000 per kilo to the buyers.

The accused are selling Ganjai packed in small quantities at a higher price. A 20-gram packet is sold at Rs 500 and the peddlers are targeting students. Recently the police arrested one Thatrakalku Netaji from Vajrakarur mandal in the district, who also has links with Odisha smugglers. Netaji is allegedly playing a key role in ganja smuggling in the district.

Soon after taking charge, SP Jagadeesh vowed to deal with ganja smugglers with an iron fist so as to protect gullible youth from falling into drugs trap. He identified students, who already consuming the drug, and gave counselling to students and their parents.

Anantapur DSP V Srinivasa Rao and CI Kanumuri Sainath teamed up and on information tracked the accused and arrested them.