Mangaluru CCB arrests four, seizes 119 kg ganja procured from naxal-affected areas in Andhra Pradesh
MANGALURU: In a breakthrough, Mangaluru CCB police arrested four inter-state peddlers and seized 119 kilograms of Ganja cultivated in the naxal-affected region in Andhra Pradesh.
The arrested individuals are Moideen Shabbir, (38) from Kasargod, Mahesh Dhawaraknath Pandey, (30) from Thane, currently living in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, Ajai Krishna, (33) from Alappuzha in Kerala and Jeevan Singh, (35) from Jind district in Haryana.
The accused were arrested following a tip-off near Mittakodi in Kurnadu village in Ullal taluk by the CCB police.
Mangaluru city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal in a press conference on Tuesday said that the accused used to procure the ganja from Andhra Pradesh and sell it in Mangaluru and Kerala.
It was transported through a goods truck carrying fish and a car.
"Our team has seized ganja worth Rs 35 lakhs along with five mobile phones, fish crate and other valuables with total value of seized items amounting to Rs 51 lakhs. The accused transported ganja from Andhra Pradesh via the Bengaluru-Mangaluru road to Kasargod in Kerala," the commissioner said.
One of the accused Shabbir has 12 cases registered against him including that of cattle theft, assault and murder in Kasargod, Manjeshwar, Kumble and Vidyanagar stations.
He was arrested in 2023 by the CCB team and 23kg of ganja was seized from him.
However, after being jailed for one and a half years, he was released on bail six months ago and started peddling drugs again.
Another accused Mahesh has two ganja supply-related cases in Andhra Pradesh while Ajay has six cases including robbery, assault, Narcotics and fake gold pledging case against him. The operation was carried out under by CCB ACP Manoj Kumar Naik and inspector Rafeeq K M, PSI Sharanappa Bhandary.