Mahabubnagar Police on Thursday (23) busted an international cannabis-peddling racket and arrested four persons who were transporting the contraband from Andhra Pradesh to Sri Lanka.
Police seized 180 kilogrammes of cannabis worth Rs. 2.1 million from the possession of the accused. The gang was using RFID tags to track the contraband during its transit across international waters.
The arrested were identified as P. Satish from Madurai, K. Kalyan from Hyderabad, M. Ajith of Tamil Nadu’s Theni and G. Surendran of Chandrayangutta. Their associates Sivaneswaran, Ramu, Murthy and Ram Reddy are absconding. On January 4, a car driven by Sivaneswaran carrying 180 kilogrammes of cannabis stuffed in waterproof packets, rammed into a parked lorry at Thatikonda on NH-44 near Bhootpur.
Ajith sitting in the front seat suffered severe injuries in the mishap while Sivaneswaran fled from the scene with the help of other accused in another car abandoning Ajith. The driver of the lorry noticed cannabis in the car and informed the police.
During investigations, cops found out that Satish and Kalyan who have a history of cannabis peddling were transporting the seized cannabis from Sileru in Vishakapatnam to Madurai. Recently, Satish and Kalyan had started procuring cannabis from Ramu and Murthy at Sileru for Rs. 5,000 a kilogramme and selling the same to Jayachandran of Rameshwaram for Rs 13,000 a kilogramme.
“From Rameshwaram area, the accused were transporting cannabis to Sri Lanka through boats and selling the same in Sri Lanka for Rs. 18,000 a kilogramme. The gang tags the contraband with RFID chips to track its movement over the sea,” Mahbubnagar SP Rema Rajeswari said. (Times of India)
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