Two tonnes of ganja worth a whopping Rs 15 crore in the wholesale market has been seized in a joint operation by NCB officials from Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Officials described the drug haul as the biggest ever.
Acting on a tip received by the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Bengaluru zonal unit, officials intercepted a truck near the Pedda Amberpet toll plaza in Hyderabad on Sunday. An inspection confirmed the smuggling. Four people, including the truck driver, were subsequently arrested, officials said. They have been identified as K Kale, S Kale, C Kale and B Dhoralkar, all from Osmanabad, Maharashtra.
The contraband was stuffed between raw cashew nut shells in 1,080 packets, each of which weighed about two kilograms.
Amit Ghawate, Zonal Director, NCB, Bengaluru, said the ganja had been sourced from the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border and was headed to Pune and Mumbai.
According to NCB officials, ganga cultivated illegally in the Naxalism-affected areas near the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border is smuggled to Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and across the ocean to Sri Lanka.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks