With the Prohibition and Excise Department and the Police tightening enforcement at almost the all major routes from the Visakhapatnam Agency to the National Highway 16, ganja smugglers have turned to the Odisha border to smuggle the weed out of the forest areas.
Small quantities in 25 to 30 kg packs are still being pushed out of the agency areas, but bulk movement has dropped considerably, said the Assistant Commissioner (Enforcement) Prohibition and Excise S.V.V.N. Babji Rao.
In 2017, the police have seized 25 tonnes and the Excise officials have seized about 50 tonnes so far. According to Mr. Babji Rao, smugglers are now using the Sileru-Jolaput-Malkangiri route to smuggle ganja in bulk to Odisha. It is then shipped to Kolkata or transported via Chhattisgarh to Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh.
The smugglers use specially fabricated vehicles to transport the weed in bulk and are using the Viziangaram route via Araku-Paderu and Salur as an alternative.
Hash oil
The drug rings have also turned to ‘Hashish oil’ or ‘Hash oil’ — produced from crushing cannabis leaves — which is easier to transport in small bottles. About 20 kg of raw ganja is crushed to produce one litre of hashish oil and the price can vary from ₹60,000 to ₹1 lakh in cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai or Mumbai. A couple of drops of the oil in a cigarette are allegedly enough to give the smoker a high.
The production of hash oil came to light in February when an Excise Department raid busted a crushing and manufacturing unit in Alagam, an interior village in G Madugula mandal of the Visakhapatnam Agency.
