A pastor has been caught smuggling 600 kg ganja worth around 10 million Indian rupees from Andhra Pradesh to the coastal area of Tamil Nadu. Initial investigation revealed that he was trying to smuggle it to Sri Lanka, Indian media reported today.
The smuggling attempt was thwarted by a special team of the Prohibition wing of the Tamil Nadu police who were on patrol near Kayathar, Thoothukudi.
They spotted a mini container lorry with a Chennai registration number and stopped it for enquiry on suspicion. As the driver gave unconvincing answers, cops inspected the container which turned out to be empty.
However, the top portion of the container looked odd with fresh white paint which prompted cops to inspect it. It turned out that smugglers designed the container with a secret space at the top portion to hide drugs. Cops recovered 300 packets of ganja each weighing 2kg from the secret compartment.
The driver and 2 others travelling with him were arrested and taken to the Prohibition Wing police station for investigation.
Initial investigation revealed that one of the arrested was a pastor named John Arputha Bharat, a native of Arogyapuram in Thoothukudi. The other two are driver Shakti Babu of Enam and Vijayakumar of Thoothukudi.
The three brought the package from Andhra Pradesh and were trying to smuggle it to Sri Lanka. An ABP Nadu report says that they chose the coastal area of TN along the Thoothukudi, Vembar, and Tharuvaikulam route to avoid being intercepted by police and easily access the sea.
Police estimate the value of the 600 kg package from INR 6 million to 10 million.
Smuggling activities are on the rise as efforts to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are speculated to have picked up again, the report said.
Early this month, TN police busted another smuggling ring and seized 300 kg of ganja from the coasts of Nagapattinam. A few days later NIA raided many places involved in an illegal drugs and arms trade racket in Chennai and arrested a man.
TN police have been receiving intelligence inputs about such attempts from central agencies which have been tracking Pakistani and Tamil nationalist groups behind this. Police officers say that these networks smuggle ganja to Sri Lanka and bring back heroin which is used to raise funds to revive LTTE.
Other than being ferried to Sri Lanka, drug smuggling and peddling has also resulted in the deterioration of law and order situation in Tamil Nadu. Crimes induced by drug abuse have become rampant in TN with the free flow of ganja and other drugs in recent times, the report added.
Source: Hindu Post
--Agencies
