Koraput: In a special drive against ganja trade, police in Koraput district have arrested at least 21 ganja smugglers, in past few weeks, a police officer said.


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Cases registered recently by police under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act indicate that ganja mafia have spread their tentacles in the district with certain areas of Jeypore sub-division slowly turning into new hub of cannabis trade, the officer said.


A special task force was formed under the direct supervision of Superintendent of Police, Koraput, Kanwar Vishal Singh and raids were conducted based on specific information.


Crackdown on illegal ganja smuggling will be intensified as this trade is directly linked to increasing crime rate in the district, the SP said


The wild grass, illegally cultivated in the hills and jungles in Malkangiri district and Lamataput and Machkund areas of Koraput district is smuggled to states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan.


While full-fledged organised inter-state gangs seem to be involved in the trade, huge profit margin has pushed up the demand for the Odisha grass even outside India, sources said.


On the modus operandi adopted by the gangs in smuggling ganja, ASP (Jeypore) Prabhat Kumar Pradhan said the original traders never come to the picture and they receive orders from the counterparts residing outside the state.


The mafia send their men with money and vehicle to a particular point, where ganja is cultivated, to lift the banned drug, he said.


Local unemployed youths are engaged by the trader as informers, who guard the vehicle to reach a certain distance safely.


From there another group take charge and subsequently the consignment is taken outside the state, he said.


To make a quick buck, the youths get attracted to this illegal trade. The gang operates in so clinical precision that sometimes it becomes difficult to get an inkling about it, the officer admitted.


Another modus operandi of the trade is local gangs hijack consignment of traders belonging to outside the state and sell the banned drug to some other party.


Both being parties in the illegal activities no police complaint is lodged regarding the hijack of the vehicles, Pradhan said.


Police said there is no specific corridor for ganja smuggling in the district. Mostly the smuggled drug reaches Chhattisgarh from Malkangiri via Boipariguda, Kundura, Jeypore, Borigumma and Kotpad.


Sometimes the ganja smugglers carry the ganja in containers and sealed tins to give the police the slip.