In its biggest-ever drugs bust, CCB seizes Rs 1 crore worth of ganja

In the biggest-ever drugs bust in its history, the CCB said it had seized 204 kg of ganja worth Rs 1 crore that was being smuggled into Bengaluru from a remote part of coastal Andhra Pradesh.

A team of the CCB’s Anti Narcotics Wing (ANW) intercepted a tanker truck just when it was about to offload the contraband onto a car near Devanahalli, North Bengaluru, on Wednesday night. The banned substance was to be supplied to sub-peddlers in various parts of the city and other districts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The CCB said it had arrested two main drug peddlers — Qaisar Pasha alias Zakir, 41, of Mysuru, and Ismail Sharif, 38, of Gauribidanur, — and Mysuru native Sameer, the truck driver.

It was the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) that tipped the CCB about the drug smuggling around 15 days ago. A team consisting of ANW assistant commissioner of police Gautham, inspector Bollethin M S and others started tracking the suspects.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said the gang had purchased the ganja through one Shiva Reddy in Tuni, a town in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, and used a tanker truck to smuggle it into Bengaluru in order to avoid scrutiny at police checkpoints. The ganja was grown in a hilly region near Tuni.

The bust reflects the ambitions of the drug mafia to cater to the rising demands of drug users not only in Bengaluru but also in other parts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The seized ganja is enough to serve two lakh people.

According to Pant, the drug peddlers have links with sub-peddlers in Mysuru, Ramanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Chikkaballapur, Kolar and other districts. “We will take the case to a logical conclusion. There will be more arrests,” he said.

A CCB officer who’s part of the investigation said Pasha and Sharif placed orders with Reddy over the phone and made the payment online. Sameer was tasked with taking delivery and bringing it safely to Bengaluru.

Sameer has been driving trucks for the past 10 years. He usually transports motor vehicles and other heavy material in his container truck from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to Jharkhand.

His container truck came in handy in smuggling the ganja. After reaching Devanahalli, he would take a right turn which leads to an almost-deserted stretch. Here, he would offload the ganja bags into a car.

“We have got in touch with Andhra Pradesh police about nabbing Shiva Reddy who lives in a hilly region near Tuni and buys the ganja from local farmers,” the officer said.

The gang was exclusively into ganja peddling. It would buy one kilo of ganja for about Rs 50,000 and sell it at a profit of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. It always purchased more than 100 kilos, the officer said.

The ganja was mostly supplied to college-goers, IT professionals, businessmen and labourers through an organised network, a senior officer said.

Role of drugs in riots?

Pant said that a few people arrested for the August 11 riots in Pulakeshinagar were into drugs, and promised stringent action against them.