The Erode police have seized nearly 5,000 kg ganja from a farm near Chennimalai and arrested three persons.
According to Superintendent of Police T. Jayachandran, a police team, following a tip off, raided on Friday the five-acre farm in Muruga Thozhuvu village near Chennimalai and stumbled upon green and dry ganja.
Dry ganja stored in bags weighed around 800 kg and cost nearly Rs.40 lakh. And ganja collected and destroyed from the farm weighed a little more than 4,000 kg, he said.
Following the seizure, the police arrested Pandiammal, wife of Kottaiyan, of Andipatti, Theni district, Easwaran, son of Ocha Thevar, and his wife Pachiammal, of Uthamapalayam, Theni.
All three have been charged under sections of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act. Mr. Jayachandran said the police team was looking for four more persons.
The seven had cultivated ganja as inter-crop and fenced the farm with maize, thoor dal and jatropha.
Friday’s haul comes close on the heel of a similar raid the police conducted last week following a tip off from the Inspector General of Police, South Zone.
The operation resulted in the seizure of ganja worth over Rs.1 crore. In the incident too, people from Theni were involved.
Mr. Jayachandran said investigations conducted in the two cases had revealed that people from Theni district had taken on lease lands in and around Chennimalai to cultivate ganja.
