Mumbai: Ganja worth Rs 3.5 crore allegedly smuggled from Odisha have been seized in Mumbai.
The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai crime branch has also arrested two peddlers – Akash Yadav (25) and Dinesh Kumar Saroj (26) – in what is being considered as one of the biggest such operations in the recent past, the PTI reported.
The 1,800 kg ganja was seized from a truck which was intercepted by police at a Foot Over Bridge (FOB) on the Eastern Express highway in suburban Vikhroli on Friday evening.
The report further said that Laxmikant Pradhan, a resident of Ganjam district in Odisha, has been identified as the kingpin of the inter-state smuggling.
“Members of this racket used to bring 5 tonnes of ganja into Maharashtra every month and around 3 to 4 tonnes of it was distributed in Mumbai and neighbouring districts,” an official was quoted as saying by the news agency.
Elaborating on their modus operandi, Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Milind Bharambe told the media that the gang used to hire trucks from Mumbai on the pretext of importing coconuts. These were taken to a town on Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border and the wheels taken over by another set of drivers and cleaners, who then proceeded to Ganjam to bring ganja.
