KOCHI: It’s going to be sleepless nights for many in the city as police have unearthed a major online drug delivery racket through which hundreds had bought ganja disguised as a “herbal formulation” from a portal after making payments through third party UPI apps.
The police have started collecting the details of the digital transactions made by the buyers on the portal to get the ‘herbal product’ delivered at their doorsteps through a major courier service firm in the city. In fact, it was a timely alert of an executive of the courier firm that helped the police detect the method followed by the racket to deliver ganja through courier services.
Already, the police have registered 11 cases in connection with the incident and, surprisingly, the clientele of the company which delivered the ‘herbal product’ included students to business people. As per the FIRs registered at Central police station, the gang sourced small quantities of ganja mixed with other products in small plastic containers from Can Indica Pvt Ltd based in Haryana. The containers were seized based on the information provided by the employee at Blue Dart office at TD Road here.
“We became alert when we started receiving consignments from a particular firm registered in Haryana frequently. When the number of consignments increased, we grew suspicious and alerted the police,” said the courier firm staffer. Central SHO S Vijayashankar said a detailed probe is on and the team is trying to verify the details of the Haryana-based company. We found the ganja mixed with some sort of herbal product to disguise the contraband,” he said.
So far, the police have booked Anish Joseph of Kalamassery, Arjun S of Kozhikode, Nikhil Krishnan of Kakkanad, Joseph Sebastian of Pala, Athul Thottapally of Thrissur, Farhan Kabeer of Manjeri, Joseph Vallikkat of Ettumanoor, Prakash Ramananth of Manjeri, Tanmay Asher of Thevara, Anirudh Kollara of Kochi Marine Drive and Varghese Mathew of Vazhakulam in Ernakulam. Police officers said all of them had purchased ganja online.
“We have collected the mobile numbers of the buyers which they have given for placing the orders. The quantity of the ganja in each container is of 4gm to 7gm,” said another police officer. As per the preliminary probe, a company named Canindica operated in Gurugram, Haryana, is manufacturing many herbal products and supplements for pharma, food and cosmetic firms.