Bengaluru, July 13 (UNI) The Karnataka Police on Wednesday said that it has busted an inter-state gang of drug peddlers who posed as nomads.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB)’s Anti-Narcotics Wing arrested four persons, including two women and seized 5 kilograms of hashish oil worth Rs 4 crore and 6 kilograms of ganja from them, an official statement said.
According to the police, the inter-state gang ran a full-fledged network in the country. They resided in remote villages located in the Araku and Senthipalli forest regions of the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.
They had connections with drug peddlers of Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and other metropolitan cities. The accused called the drug peddlers from various cities to Nellore, Guntur, Vijayawada, Puttaparthi railway stations, and Hyderabad city bus stand and took orders from them. They received advance money in cash at the same time, police said.
The accused would hoodwink forest and excise check posts personnel in Araku and Senthipalli forest areas and travel as nomads. They would walk a distance of 25 to 30 km inside the forests.
They would manufacture hashish oil using the ganja grown in the forests as per the orders and take the same route on the return journey. They would travel in buses and trains and the women would hide the drugs in bags containing fruits, vegetables, rice, and wheat, the police said.
The accused would put up makeshift tents beside the railway stations. The peddlers would come to the stipulated places and take delivery of the drugs. The accused never used mobile phones and identity cards and they never stayed in one place and lived as nomads to escape from coming on the radar of the authorities.
