Customs Seize Ganja Value Rs 23.5 Crore From Chennai Airport, 3 Arrested

Chennai:

Customs officers seized hydroponic ganja valued at Rs 23.5 crore from Chennai Airport on Wednesday and arrested three folks on this connection.

The contraband was smuggled from Thailand, hid in comfortable drink powder packets.

Based on sources, the hydroponic ganja, cultivated utilizing water as the first medium, is understood by numerous road names, together with OG, sugarcone, and Kush.

Tamil Nadu has more and more turn out to be a key transit hub for worldwide drug syndicates, with banned substances like methamphetamine and its precursor, pseudoephedrine, being trafficked to international locations equivalent to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Australia, the place demand is excessive, the sources stated.

In 2024, the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) and the Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI) seized methamphetamine price roughly Rs 380 crore.

Intelligence sources point out that a good portion of the medicine are sourced from Myanmar and transported to Sri Lanka.

On November 17, 2024, Chennai metropolis police arrested Nigerian nationwide Philip, believed to be the mastermind behind a cartel smuggling methamphetamine into Tamil Nadu and distributing it in smaller portions.

The Arumbakkam police have to date arrested 12 people in reference to the case.

The drug, which prices between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,00,000 per kilogram in Manipur, is bought for as a lot as Rs 7 lakh per kilogram in Chennai. In worldwide markets equivalent to Sri Lanka and Australia, its worth escalates to a number of crores.

Based on NCB sources, the first smuggling route entails transporting methamphetamine from Myanmar throughout the India-Myanmar border into Manipur.

From there, it’s carried by human couriers on trains to Tamil Nadu, the place it’s hid in autos and transported to coastal cities like Rameswaram, Thoothukudi, and Nagapattinam. As soon as on the coast, the medicine are loaded onto native fishing boats and transferred mid-sea to Sri Lanka by way of Tamil Nadu’s porous maritime border, the NCB sources added.

Investigations have recognized Moreh, a city in Manipur close to the India-Myanmar border, as a vital transit hub.

The Tamil neighborhood in Moreh is suspected to have hyperlinks with Chennai’s Pink Hills space, additional exposing the attain of the drug syndicate.

Authorities have additionally uncovered proof suggesting that remnants of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should be clandestinely working in elements of Tamil Nadu.

In October 2021, former LTTE operative Satkunam alias Sabesan was arrested by the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) for his involvement in arms and drug trafficking from Pakistan to Sri Lanka.

Though the LTTE has been defunct for years, safety businesses suspect that its extremely educated former cadres are participating in mid-sea smuggling operations, facilitating the transportation of medication from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka and past – to Malaysia and Australia.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)