Inter-state ganja racket busted by Madurai City Police

Madurai Police bust inter-State ganja racket, arresting smuggler Chinnan in Visakhapatnam, revealing extensive smuggling network.

The Madurai City Police have busted an inter-State ganja racket by arresting one Chinnan in Visakhapatnam, who had been smuggling the narcotic substance through courier, under the guise of toys, to the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

A special police team brought the accused to Madurai. He was sent to judicial custody on Friday. Initial probe has revealed that he could have smuggled around 700 kg of ganja over the last few months to Madurai and Theni districts. “On September 23, we received an alert from a courier branch manager about a suspicious parcel. Our team found 24 kg of ganja in it,” Commissioner of Police J. Loganathan told The Hindu on Saturday.

Subsequently, two persons were arrested in the city under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. However, two more consignments from Visakhapatnam arrived through the same courier service the next day. This led to suspicions that a “network” was behind such smuggling, he added.

Soon, a special police team was sent to Visakhapatnam. “With the help of the local police, our team nabbed the accused from a forest area.... But a large number of locals planned to gherao the police station [in the wake of the arrest], following which the accused was whisked away to another police station,” a police officer said, adding that he was brought to Madurai after a transit warrant was obtained.

The Commissioner said the courier personnel were unaware of the smuggling. “Initially, the accused was sending earthen toys through the same courier service from Visakhapatnam. Since he was a regular customer, they [the courier personnel] did not suspect him,” he added.

The police are collating the addresses to which Chinnan was sending these parcels. “We are yet to ascertain how he formed a network from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu [for smuggling ganja]...,” Mr. Loganathan said.

Madurai District Superintendent of Police B.K. Arvind said a crackdown on ganja-sellers was under way. An auto-driver, Venkatesh, was arrested on September 29 and 74 kg of ganja was seized from a hideout. “We have so far seized 500 kg of ganja in 2024, mostly from the Usilampatti and Samayanallur sub-divisions,” he said.