Kochi: A man in the illegal narcotics trade to find money to produce his own movie for which he had written a script has been held by the Excise Special squad sleuths. The accused was identified as Libumon Balakrishnan(37), a native of Puthuvype, and was arrested from Vytilla on Sunday. According to the cops, the youth harboured a dream from his college days to produce his own film and even prepared three scripts on the Mumbai Underworld and was on the lookout for some quick money to finance his dream project.
“He had shifted to Bengaluru where he was living for over a year. He used to occasionally go to Palani and get ganja and other narcotics from there at cheap rates before selling them off at Kochi,” a senior Excise department official said. The Excise sleuths got a tip-off that the accused was arriving at Kochi to sell off a consignment and laid a trap. “He had brought 4.5 kg ganja and even sold a part of the consignment to a party at Trippunithura. We finally managed to catch him when he was waiting for another customer and seized 2.2 kg of the narcotics,” the officer said.
Upon interrogation, the accused admitted that he used to visit Palani twice a week to procure ganja and sold them at Kochi. “He used to get Rs 40,000 for each such trip. A further probe revealed that he had many customers from the film field. We are probing to find more persons connected with the illegal smuggling and trade. Besides ganja, he used to sell banned narcotic drugs,” the officer said. The accused told police that he would take the ganja to Coimbatore by bus and further smuggle it to Kochi via train.
