Bengaluru zone Narcotics Control Bureau unearthed an inter-state ganja selling syndicate in Hyderabad by arresting eight persons, and seized 681.8 kg ganja from them, the NCB, said in its statement. The seized ganja in 335 packets was meant to be sold in various parts of Pune and Osmanabad districts in Maharashtra.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad NCB sleuths worked in tandem, while the Bengaluru sleuths decoded and passed the intelligence inputs and Hyderabad sleuths worked on the ground to bust the syndicate.
The NCB said that these packets were recovered from three vehicles — Bolero pickup trucks that camouflage like vegetable transporting vehicles, and the boot space of Swift Dzire and Honda city cars.
According to a statement released by the NCB, the arrested are identified as S Pawar, V Pawar, B Ware, M Dhotre, D Deshmukh, R Gunjal, A Gandhi and S Sanap. The NCB added that the syndicate used to procure large quantities of ganja from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and sell it elsewhere.
The NCB added that they acted on tip off and seized such a huge quantity of banned substance from Pedda Amberpet Toll Plaza in Rangareddy district in Telangana. "The consignment was concealed in compressed form and kept in a brick like 335 packets and wrapped with brown colour adhesive tapes," the NCB explained.
According to the NCB, the consignment was passing through Andhra-Odisha border and illegal ganja cultivation is largely concentrated in Andhra-Odisha border areas with Naxal presence.
"Ganja from this region finds its way to all over the country including major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and various states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and even it is smuggled through the ocean to Sri Lanka as well," the note explained.
The note added that difficult terrain and inaccessibility makes these areas difficult for law enforcement agencies to destroy illegal cultivation of ganja.
The NCB Hyderabad sub-division has registered a case and is investigating.