GUNTUR: Two foreign nationals belonging to Yemen and Syria and three other persons were arrested by Guntur police for conducting illegal ganja and drug business.
Ganja and drug addiction among students has increased recently, as a result of which the police stepped up their surveillance and busted the racket that was supplying ganja and sedative drugs to students.
Addressing a press conference at Guntur on Sunday, Urban Superintendent of Police PHD Ramakrishna said that the police arrested Mohammed Saad Ahmed Mehsen of South Yemen and Al Mohammed Rafat of Syria and three others of Guntur city at Guntur on Sunday with 2.6 kg of ganja.
The police also seized addiction drugs made of ganja, ecstasy pills and MDMF (white crystals) from them. Along with that, two motorbikes, a mobile phone, passports and `1,000 in cash were seized. The three other arrested have been identified as Sk Nagoor Sharif, Cherukula Venkata Surya Kumar Reddy and Palem Avinash.
The police had earlier found illegal sedative drugs in possession of Mohammad Saad, while conducting searches at Nallapadu on November 17. The police then booked a case and started investigation against the BBA student from South Yemen.
It was found that he was getting the sedative drugs from General Max Macse of Nigeria, who was residing at Bengaluru in Karnataka, through Syrian Al Mohammed Rafat. Mohammad Saad was further supplying the drugs to some other students, including Minni of Sudan and Yona of Tanzania, who were studying in the KL University at Vaddeswaram in Tadepalli mandal. He was also supplying the drugs to Nagoor Sharif and Surya Kumar Reddy to earn easy money.
According to the police, his visa had also expired and the police booked a case under Section 14 of the Foreign Act against him for illegal stay in India. SP Ramakrishna appreciated the work done by Guntur South DSP M Kamalakar, CCS DSP Lakshminarayana, Nallapadu Circle Inspector (CI) K Veeraswamy, CCS CIs B Srinivasa Rao, A Siva Prasad and M Venkata Rao, and technical team’s SI Viswanath Reddy, who were instrumental in cracking the case.
The SP appealed to the public to share any information they have regarding ganja, banned tobacco products and addiction drugs through WhatsApp number 8688831300, so that stringent action could be taken against the culprits.
He said that the police department would not spare anyone if they got involved in illegal transportation of ganja, sedative drugs and other banned tobacco products.