842 kg of cannabis was seized from two persons in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday after they were caught smuggling the contraband by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials. The duo were stopped at National Highway 16 near Vijayawada as they were driving a cargo truck.
“After checks, it was found that about 842.72 kg of cannabis, a narcotic drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 was found packed in 397 High-density polyethylene (HDPE) sacks. The ganja was placed on a specially made rectangular compartment on top of the cargo vehicle and a black coloured tarpaulin was tied to cover the false top,” officials said in a statement.
The NDPS Act criminalises possession, trade, transport and consumption of cannabis, among other narcotic and psychotropic substances.
Officials also said that the seized contraband was worth Rs 1.26 crore in the market and was headed to Ahmednagar in Maharashtra after being loaded at Narsipatnam.
In June this year, officials from Andhra Pradesh's Prohibition and Excise Department destroyed 7,814 kg of ganja that was seized from 62 raids conducted in East and West Godavari districts.
The officials burnt a large amount of the dry crop, in the presence of state's Excise Minister KS Jawahar, Prohibition and Excise Commissioner Dr P Lakshmi Narasimhan, East Godavari Deputy Commissioner B Aruna Rao and West Godavari Deputy Commissioner Y B Bhaskara Rao among others.
Speaking to reporters, the Minister said that the government was determined to make the state 'ganja free' and warned people against cultivating the crop.
He also said that close to 1.7 crore ganja plants had already been destroyed in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts.
Ganja is grown on a large scale in the Agency area of Visakhapatnam and officials suspect that a lot of Maoists are involved in cultivation of the plant, who use the money gained from its sale for their activities.