The Krishna district police seized a haul of gutkha products and about 10 kg of ganja, all worth about ₹70 lakh, besides confiscating five cars and arresting five persons in this connection, said Superintendent of Police (SP) M. Ravindranath Babu.
On a tif-off, a police team led by Nandigama Rural CI Satish and Kanchikacherla SI G. Srihari Babu intercepted the cars on Bejjur Road and seized the gutkha packets of different brands, packed in gunny bags, the SP said at a press conference at Nandigama on Sunday.
The arrested were P. Bhaskar Rao, K. Harish, D. Nageswara Rao and M. Balaraju, all natives of Telangana, and Das Shekar of Paritala village in Krishna district.
Seven mobile phones and ₹13,500 cash had been seized from the gang. The Preventive Detention (PD) Act would be invoked against the accused, the SP said.
Nandigama DSP G.V. Ramana Murthy said that Das Shekar had been procuring gutkha from Bidar in Karnataka with the help of other gang members and supplying it to the retail shops in nearby districts.