Excise officials recently stumbled up on a considerable volume of ganja during an inspection in Aluva.
While checking vehicles, they came across a car which didn’t raise any suspicion but for two big commercial gas cylinders in the back as if the car was fuelled by gas. But curiously, it was a petrol car.
On closer scrutiny, officials found to their shock that the cylinders were, in fact, skilfully converted storage spaces. One side of the cylinders was neatly cut out to stack it with ganja and restored to its original shape.
Several such methods are adopted by carriers to smuggle in the narcotic. Excise officials said that some carriers hid the drugs in the vehicle bonnet when smaller volumes are smuggled.
In cases where service buses are used, drugs would be put inside a luggage and surreptitiously deposited away from the carrier from where he could see it.
This would help him to disown the luggage if it is seized during a vehicle check.
Where college students are engaged as carriers, the methods adopted are often more naïve. There have been instances when enforcement officials seized the drugs from even from their lunch boxes.
