BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch arrested five persons, including three natives of Uttar Pradesh, with 850 kg ganja in Koraput district.
On a tip-off, the agency’s sleuths conducted a raid at Pitaguda within Nandapur police limits on Monday and intercepted a tractor fitted with a water tanker. The contraband was hidden in the tanker and the tractor did not have registration number to hoodwink the police.
They accused are Dharmjit Sharma, Rajnish Sharma and Kanhaiya Singh of Uttar Pradesh and Madhusudan Golari and Ugra Pujari of Odisha who were escorting the tractor.
While the ganja was procured from Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border, the consignment was being taken to Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.
A native of Uttar Pradesh is the mastermind of the racket and efforts are on to nab him, said STF DIG Jai Narayan Pankaj. The officials also received information about a police constable’s involvement in the racket.
In Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, one kg ganja is being sold between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 during the pandemic and the estimated market value of the total seizure is over Rs 1 crore. Nandapur police have registered a case and further investigation is on.