The seizure of 267 kg of ganja (cannabis) at the Kumily check-post on Tuesday night points to the fact that inter-State rackets engaged in the cultivation and distribution of the narcotic item is using the high range area as a transit point.
A senior official of the Excise Department told The Hindu on Thursday that one reason for using the district as a transit point was because “the racket considered it a safe haven”.
From Andhra
He said that preliminary inquiry revealed that the seized ganja was brought from a remote area in Andhra Pradesh and it was suspected that some people from the district were cultivating ganja in that area with the support of locals there.
With the Forest Department intensifying checking in remote areas, the cultivation of ganja could be brought to a nil in the district. But ganja brought from outside the State was sold in small packets in the district, he said.
There have been intelligence reports that cannabis is widely cultivated in the Naxal-infested remote areas of northern States and it is being distributed in the southern States through various modes.
The Excise Department has intensified checks at Kumily, Cumbam Mettu and Body Mettu check posts and the Top Station in Munnar, where a road through the forest leading to Tamil Nadu has been closed. Checking is also carried out on various forest routes in the border areas.
Though ganja used to be smuggled by trains plying between north India and the State, the checks and extra vigil by the Excise Department had forced the racket to change the routes, he said.
The official said that Kochi was being used as a marketing hub by the racket. Though there had been some ganja seizures, they were of small quantities, he said.
A detailed inquiry was needed to find out the sources and the network being used by the racket to transport ganja to various destinations and users, including some foreigners who arrive annually in the State.
Whether the huge quantity was brought for making some sub-product like hashish would be probed, he said. Also inquiry would be held to find out whether any Ayurvedic firms were engaged in making illegal medicines, which are advertised as rejuvenating agents, from cannabis, the official said.
