Busting interstate drug rackets, the Odisha Police have made a seizure of cannabis, locally called ganja, worth Rs 49 crore and arrested as many as 529 suspected drug traffickers for their alleged involvement in smuggling of narcotics substance in the past three months, an official said.
Stepping up the drive against the trafficking of narcotic substances in the State, police impounded 49,400 kgs of ganja during the January-March period this year, which is one of the highest in the first quarter for any calendar year, the official informed.
This seizure figure and the arrest of traffickers did not include the recovery and arrest made by the Odisha Excise Department. The police have registered 425 cases of ganja seizure and arrested 529 traffickers, including inter-state kingpins who hail from Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the official added.
The contraband smuggled from different parts, mostly from Malkangiri district, makes its way to southern and northern parts of the country by a well-oiled racket of middlemen. The large quantity of seizure in the recent past put Malkangiri on the pedestal of State’s largest ganja producing district. The contraband is smuggled to various destinations either by road or rail, confided official sources.
Though the police tasted success in the past three months in nabbing over 500 ganja traffickers, it is being widely believed that money-spinning trade continues to flourish in the State due to alleged nexus of both the excise and police personnel with the drug peddlers. There are instances of both police and excise personnel booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance act in the past years, added the official sources.