NAGAPATTINAM: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday night foiled an attempt to smuggle 661 kilos of ganja, worth over Rs 1 crore, to Sri Lanka. This is the first major drug trafficking bust of the year in Nagapattinam district. Five persons were arrested, and a truck and two SUVs used to transport the consignment were seized.
The ganja was packed in 310 bundles weighing 661.5 kilos and was bought in Andhra Pradesh. Sources in the NCB did not divulge details of how such a huge consignment escaped scrutiny in Chennai but claimed they were tracking movement of the consignment.
“We received information that ganja was bought at Anakkapalli in Andhra Pradesh. Through Chennai and Viralimalai in Pudukkottai, the gang brought it to Vedaranyam. It was to be smuggled to Sri Lanka,” said a senior official from Narcotics Control Bureau.
The NCB team stopped the truck and SUVs on Valluvar Road near Ayakaranpulam in Vedaranyam around 10 pm on Wednesday and seized the ganja. Five persons, including M Selvaraj (54), S Aiyyappan (35) and R Paramanantham (35) of Vedaranyan were arrested. The others, S Ramanan (40) and G Thavamani (37) were from Thiruvotriyur in Chennai. The suspects and vehicles were taken to the Vaimedu police
station.
Smuggling ganja to Sri Lanka via Vedaranyam is not uncommon. Bundles of ganja had been caught near coastal villages such as Arukatuthurai, Manian Theevu, and Kodiyakarai in the past, where the drug was loaded in small quantities in fiberglass fishing boats and taken to Sri Lanka.
The NCB, in the past, had stopped the consignment before it reached Kodiyakarai.