Mumbai: Ganja seizure has city cops probing narco-Maoists link

The drug mafia prefer having storage facilities in cities that are emerging as education hubs to cater to their young consumers

The recent seizure of 1,800 kg of cannabis or ganja in Mumbai has spurred the city police to widen its probe beyond Maharashtra. It has sent out 16 cops to Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to find out if the trade is linked to Maoists.

In Odisha, the police said, cannabis is grown on a large scale in hilly areas that are considered Maoist hotbeds. Pic/Odisha police

Earlier this month, the Crime Branch's Anti-Narcotics Cell arrested a tempo driver, Akash Yadav, and his accomplice, Saroj, alias Sonu, near Vikhroli on the Eastern Express Highway and recovered the drugs concealed in a chamber in the vehicle.

"The consignment had been loaded in Ganjam district of Odisha and reached Mumbai via Maoist-infested zones of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This prompted us to widen our probe as we suspect that the cultivation of cannabis could be done by Maoists in the hilly terrains of these states and smuggled to inter-state druglords for bulk purchase of deadly weapons to execute their anti-government operations," a top Crime Branch officer told mid-day.

Sources said the 16 city cops probing narco-naxalism have begun clicking photos and recording videos of the illicit drug cultivation in the three states using their phones and drones.

Though a number of anti-Maoist operations have shrunk the geographical spread of Maoist influence in Odisha, a police officer from the eastern state said Devagiri and Mahendragad hills are still being used as their training grounds. Ganjam Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Rai said, "We have flushed out their hideouts in our district but they have made a few storage centres in our district."

The racketeers create cavities in vehicles to transport the banned substance and to erase their trail, the drivers are often changed ahead of inter-state police checkposts. This is to ensure that the driver doesn't have much information about the main supplier in case the vehicle is intercepted. It then becomes an arduous task for the cops to establish the long chain of command which often draws a nought, said the officer.

In the Vikhroli haul, the two men are small fries, while prime suspects Laxmikant Pradhan and Sandeep Satpute who owned a godown in Bhiwandi to store the narcotic substance are yet to be arrested.

The police are scanning the bank details of the arrested duo to check if there is any Maoist link. "If need be, we will get their bank accounts scanned forensically," the source said. Cannabis is grown at a large scale in Odisha since the plant grows faster in hilly regions, which are Maoist hotbeds, the source said.

In December 2020, local police and forest officials destroyed hemp crops across 40 acres in Ganjam.

SP Rai said, "There is no land in Ganjam where cannabis is cultivated. We have recently destroyed all but it [ganja] is cultivated in the neighbouring districts where Maoist activities have been noticed." The officer said areas in Ganjam are being used to store ganja. "We are gathering human intelligence to conduct a massive crackdown on these illegal storage," Rai added.

Sources said the drug mafia places orders for tons of cannabis from the far-off places and transports it to metro cities where the drug has high demand. "Also, smoking cannabis-filled cigarettes is common among college-goers and youth. So, the suppliers also prefer having godowns in cities which are emerging as India's education hubs," said the source, adding, "The trucks are customised at Visakhapatnam."

16
No. of city cops involved in collecting evidence