KOCHI: The Ernakulam Rural police have extended to Odisha the inquiry over the seizure of 250kg of cannabis from a tanker lorry near Perumbavoor. The vehicle was en route to Idukki from Odisha.
The police have already launched a probe into the links of the arrested tanker lorry driver, Puthupadi Selvakumar, 42, of Madurai, an officer said. “He had smuggled ganja into Kerala several times,” the officer said.
Suspected to be a middleman, Selvakumar told the police that the ganja was being transported to Idukki. He was produced before the court which remanded him in judicial custody.
According to the police, 111 packets of cannabis were concealed inside the third cabin of the tanker lorry. The other cabins were filled with rice bran oil. Based on an intelligence input, the police stopped the vehicle at Eravichira near Perumbavoor and nabbed Selvakumar, besides seizing ganja.
Over the past one and a half years, the Ernakulam Rural police have seized nearly 800kg of ganja from smugglers.