Two people from Telangana were arrested with 180 kg of cannabis or ganja worth ₹36 lakh by the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police on Saturday evening, in a trap laid by the officials at Mankhurd.
The accused, Sudhakar Reddy (30), a resident of Secundarabad, and Akula Madhu Venkateshvarlu (33), a resident of Boduppal, Telangana, were travelling in an SUV owned by Mr. Reddy. “Based on a tip-off, the Ghatkopar unit of the ANC laid a trap on Sion-Panvel highway and intercepted the SUV,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC), Shivdeep Lande said.
Mr. Reddy, the police said, was a key member of a drug cartel from Visakhapatnam, associated with those involved in cannabis plantation. The Mumbai ANC had been keeping tabs on him for several months.
The police said he had been trafficking cannabis on a regular basis and on a notable scale. “We suspect he has so far supplied over 10,000 kg of cannabis worth over ₹20 crore in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Pune over the past few years.”
The police said Mr. Reddy would get the drugs from Visakhapatnam and sell it from Hyderabad. He generally avoided leaving Hyderabad to avoid being arrested. This was his first instance of travelling to Mumbai in his own vehicle for a delivery, the police said.
He has been arrested under Sections 8C (prohibition against the cultivation of the cannabis plant for the production, possession or transport of cannabis), 20C (involving commercial quantity, with rigorous imprisonment for a term and shall be liable to fine) and 29 ( punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
