In July this year, Director General of Police C. Sylendra Babu said in Madurai that Tamil Nadu police would leave no stone unturned in its hunt against ganja peddlers, even if it meant crossing the State's border to nab the accused.
Few days later, Madurai Superintendent of Police R. Shiva Prasad, said all-out efforts were being taken to reach the root of ganja smuggling.
Walking the talk, Madurai district police on Friday, arrested one Uddu Balam Naidu of Visakhapatnam in connection with seizure of 24 kg of ganja in Sedapatti on October 7.
The police had arrested S. Ananth (21) and P. Ananthakumar of Kammalapatti. Subsequently, they also arrested N. Sethuraman, who had gone absconding.
During interrogation, Sethuraman, father of Ananth, spilled the beans that he has been getting ganja in large quantity from Uddu Balam from Andhra Pradesh.
"He was acting like a wholesale dealer for ganja and giving the narcotic susbtance in 800 to 1,000 kgs to buyers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra for the last few years," Superintendent of Police, R. Shiva Prasad, said.
With a determination of plugging the ganja supply channel to Tamil Nadu, a special team of police, led by Inspector of Police, Sedapatti, Sivabalan, went in search of him.
"We did lot of home work by identifying him to locating him in naxal-infested area close to Odisha border in Andhra Pradesh," the SP said.
Inspector General of Police, (South Zone) Asra Garg, got in touch with higher police officials in AP and with the support of AP police, the Madurai police team arrested Uddu Balam.
"He has been one of the major suppliers of ganja to smugglers in Tamil Nadu. He was already wanted in two major ganja cases -- one pertaining to seizure of 240 kg of ganja in Namakkal district and another seizure of 160 kg by Narcotics Intelligence Bureau - Criminal Investigation Department," Mr. Shiva Prasad said.
Stating that Andhra Pradesh was the major source for ganja in Tamil Nadu, the SP said that the arrest of Uddu Balam, was to send a strong message that Madurai police will get to the bottom of the illegal narcotics trade and will not spare such criminals however far they were.
