VISAKHAPATANAM: The rural police of Visakhapatnam seized 1,972 kg of quality ganja worth Rs 2 crore while it was being transported from the agency area to other parts of the State at Chintalapalliveedhi near Paderu on Tuesday. They arrested three persons, K Duggi Naidu (45) of Atchutapuram, K Rajesh (27) of Visakhapatnam agency and M Naveen, a driver of an oil tanker and resident of Tuni.
The trio procured the ganja from farmers in GK Veedhi and G Madugula mandals and were trying to shift it to Anakapalle from where they planned to distribute it to other areas. To escape, they bought an oil tanker, cleaned it up and stored ganja in 2-4 kg packets. Locals, who grew suspicious over the presence of an oil tanker in the interior areas of Paderu, tipped off the police.
"The oil tanker belongs to Duggi Naidu. He bought it in Hyderabad and used it for this purpose. We caught some ganja in a scorpio vehicle also," said Appalanaidu, CI, Paderu. Another accused K Ramu, is reportedly absconding. The ganja was procured for Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per kg. The market value of ganja per kg is around Rs 5,000 in cities like Hyderabad. In a separate incident, the West Godavari police seized 1,200 kg ganja from a bran-laden truck at Fatimapuram village in Chintalapudi mandal on Tuesday and arrested two persons. The weed, estimated to be worth Rs 50 lakh, was being transported from Chhattisgarh to Tadepalligudem via Khammam and Chintalapudi. Lorry owner SK Nagur Meera of Vijayawada and driver Sivaram Prasad of Gudiwada reportedly confessed that they were transporting the ganja up to Dwaraka Tirumala where two others were scheduled to take the load to Tadepalligudem. Both met each other during their stint in the jail at Gannavaram.