Central Crime Branch sleuths and personnel from South Sub Division on Wednesday seized 200 kg of cannabis and arrested four persons on the charge of transporting it on a vehicle used to transport fish.
The police gave the names of the arrested as Mohammed Farooq (24), Moiuddin Nawaz, both from Kasaragod district of Kerala, Syed Mohammed (31) from Kushalnagar of Kodagu district and Mohammed Ansar (23) of Mudipu in Mangaluru.
Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar told reporters that Moodbidri Police Sub-Inspector Sudeep and his staff, who were looking for accused involved in recent dacoities in Moodbidri, were tipped off about the movement of cannabis from a village in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district to parts of Dakshina Kannada and also Kasaragod in Kerala. The team, with the help of personnel from South Sub Division and the CCB, tracked the movement of the accused and seized the lorry in Ullal Police limits.
Mr. Kumar said that the accused, misusing lockdown relaxation to allow movement of essential goods, were transporting a large quantity of cannabis in the lorry. The consignment was hidden in between empty fish crates. The lorry was on its way from Hassan. The police also seized a car that was piloting the lorry.
Farooq, Nawaz and Ansar are accused in several cases of illegal transportation of cannabis registered in different police stations in Dakshina Kannada since 2012. The accused operated in an organised manner. The police are making efforts to trace others involved in the crime. Apart from cannabis, the police seized three machetes, one knife, four mobile phones and a WiFi set from them.
Mr. Kumar announced a reward of ₹25,000 to Mr. Sudeep and his team. The cannabis recovered on Wednesday was the biggest seized by the police here in the last five years, he added.
