As the enforcement agencies come up with special drives to crack down on ganja smuggling in the district, traffickers are reportedly coming up with new ways to evade the checks in Alluri Sitharamaraju, Anakapalli and Visakhapatnam districts.
Recently, the City Task Force (CTF) has busted a ganja smuggling gang that was allegedly transporting the weed in the form of curry/biryani parcels. The gang members pack the weed in an aluminium foil to make it look like a food parcel. They door deliver the products to consumers based on the orders. In June, the CTF arrested a youth from Chaitanya Nagar at Maddilapalem for ganja peddling. The accused was allegedly packing it in such a way that it looks like a parcel meant for delivery from some reputed courier company.
In November last year, the police arrested two courier boys of a reputed courier agency for smuggling ganja.
Last month, the ASR police arrested several persons who were trying to smuggle ganja in luggage bags, including suitcases. They reach the Agency areas of ASR district in the guise of tourists and smuggle the substance. Such activities were also busted in Visakhapatnam city, and the smugglers were caught while trying to board RTC buses to reach various destinations.
In 2019, some gangs were caught when they were allegedly transporting ganja through parcel vans in trains. The accused packed the ganja in multiple covers and taped them neatly so that they looked like an ordinary parcel and dumped them in parcel wagons. They used air-tight bags to ensure that there was no smell during checks, says an official.
Hundreds of cases were unearthed where ganja was smuggled in containers along with vegetable and fruit loads in the Agency areas and Anakapalli district. a few years ago, smugglers used to stuff ganja in sofa sets and parcel them to the northern States.
