Nagapattinam drug bust: Ganja worth Rs 1.5 crore seized

The smugglers were trying to transport bundles of ganja via Tiruvarur to Vedaranyam when a CID Q Branch team stopped them.
700 kilos of ganja worth Rs 1.5 crore were seized in Nagapattinam.
700 kilos of ganja worth Rs 1.5 crore were seized in Nagapattinam.

NAGAPATTINAM: An attempt to smuggle 700 kilos of ganja worth Rs 1.5 crore into Sri Lanka was thwarted in one of the biggest drug trafficking busts near Nagapattinam on Sunday.

Three suspects who posed as 'tourists' were arrested.

The smugglers were trying to transport bundles of ganja via Tiruvarur to Vedaranyam when a CID Q Branch team stopped them.

The suspects were using a tourist vehicle to carry the contraband. "The ganja seems to have been cultivated in Andhra Pradesh. The gang bought the drugs in Viralimalai of Pudukkottai district and was taking it to drug barons in Vedaranyam who send ganja into Sri Lanka. It is our biggest drug bust of the year in Nagapattinam," said an official.

According to Q Branch, they received intelligence inputs about a huge consignment of cannabis being smuggled via Mannargudi to Vedaranyam on Sunday morning.

A police team led by Inspector R Arunprasad had been deployed at several check posts on the way between Mannargudi and Vedaranyam.

Q Branch stopped a tourist van near Vadugur at around 6 am. When questioned, the van driver said the people on board were out to visit places like Velankanni and Kodiyakarai but he had lost the way and was following a car for directions.

When the police noticed that there were only three persons, including the driver, in the van, they became suspicious.

They entered the van and found 25 large bundles of ganja. When they interrogated the other two persons, they admitted they were taking the ganja to Vedaranyam.

Police arrested the driver, S Saravanan (33) and another person, V Senthil Kumar of Rathinaburi in Coimbatore district.

They also arrested M Arivendran (28) of Selloor in Madurai district. The ganja was weighed and seized along with the van, valued at Rs 10 lakh.

Those arrested, the van and ganja were taken to the Q Branch Nagapattinam office. The suspects were handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau.

Police are looking for others who allegedly guided the tourist van in an SUV.

The sea route to Sri Lanka via Vedaranyam is used by by drug smugglers.In the past, bundles of ganja have been found in coastal villages like Arukatuthurai, Manian Theevu and Kodiyakarai as they were about to be loaded into fibreglass fishing boats and taken to Sri Lanka.

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