Adilabad: It has been established beyond doubt that Adilabad district has emerged as the transit point for inter-state ganja smuggling. Police recently seized a huge cache of dry ganja from various places and made arrests.
It is believed that middle-aged people are involved in ganja cultivation and smuggling as they aspire for a life of luxury. The network has been so entrenched that agents from other states are convincing local farmers against cultivating cotton and make them realise the financial bonanza if they take to ganja cultivation. Many of them are cultivating ganja as inter-crop in cotton and red gram fields.
In a joint operation comprising officials of revenue, excise, and police wings, led by Nirmal SP Shashidhar Raju, had conducted raids on agriculture fields in Rajeshwar Thanda in Sarangapur mandal in Nirmal district and found that two farmers Nanak Singh and Rathan Singh were cultivating ganja as intercrop in cotton and red gram fields on Thursday.
Mr Shashidhar Raju said they had found 10 kgs dry ganja powder worth Rs 2 lakh and ganja plants spread over 10-15 acres in the area. The six-foot tall ganja plants were ready for harvesting.
The police uprooted all the ganja plants and burnt them. Utnoor police seized 140 kgs dry ganja worth Rs 14 lakh while they were being transported in two cars to Karimnagar on November 3.
The police found that the accused collected material from Visakhapatnam and transporting them to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana state.
Police arrested Tharot Preetham and Syed Naushad Ali of Adilabad and Pawar Raju and Rathod Bikku of Utnoor for their operation in Utnoor. They normally targeted youth, college students, unemployed youth and labourers in the old Adilabad district.
