In a cross border operation, the Thiruvananthapuram city shadow police wing in Kerala arrested a ganja smuggler from a Naxal-dominated area of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh on Friday. Along with the arrest, the police also seized 325 kilograms of ganja from the smuggler.
The arrested person has been identified as 21-year-old Sreenivas alias Sreenu, a native of Visakhapatnam. Following his arrest, a case was registered against him by the Poonthura police in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to a statement by the Kerala police, they were able to track down Sreenivas on interrogating three Malayalis and one Andhra native who were arrested a few months ago for attempting to sell 136 kg and 10 kg of ganja respectively in the state capital. From their interrogation, the police managed to find that a huge quantity of ganja used to reach Thiruvananthapuram from places such as Narsipatnam and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.
The shadow police team, which is said to have stayed in East Godavari for a few days, posed as a buyer from Kerala and nabbed the smuggler as he came to sell the ganja to the police. According to the police, the ganja peddlers in this region usually carry guns and other weapons with them as this is an area with Naxal presence.
“Huge quantities of ganja are supplied to various states from the Naxal-dominated areas of Andhra Pradesh. It’s a difficult task to go there and confront them,” said the Kerala Police in their statement.
The shadow police team, which was led by Sanjay Kumar Gurudin IPS, the Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner, consisted of Deputy Commissioner of Police R Adithya, special branch Assistant Commissioner Santhosh Kumar, Poonthura station house officer Sabu N G, shadow Sub-Inspector (SI) Sunil Lal and shadow Assistant SIs Gopakumar, Arunkumar and Yashodharan.
Speaking about the operation, Sanjay Kumar Garudin said that it is one of the biggest seizures of ganja in the history of Kerala police.