The recent arrest of five youngsters in Malappuram while trying to smuggle in a bulk load of ganja from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh has thrown light on a dangerous shift of unemployed people to drug peddling.
They were part of a gang of eight persons who returned from the Gulf region after losing their jobs during the COVID-19 lockdown. As a means to tide over the crisis, they apparently turned to the risky business of ganja peddling by procuring large quantities from Andhra Pradesh and transporting it in goods vehicles to the State for distribution among the wholesalers.
As much as 318 kg of ganja was seized from them. A few days prior to it, 66 kg of ganja was seized from a lorry on the Palakkad district border. In the recent ganja seizures in Kollam and Kochi, those involved were found to have lost their jobs because of COVID-19. Excise and police officials, quoting intelligence reports, said that more youngsters were found to have turned to smuggling of gold and drugs during the lockdown. Bulk transport of ganja from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha has increased during the lockdown.
Intelligence reports indicate that huge quantities of ganja reached the Kerala border in Tamil Nadu in the last couple of months. Much of it was stocked in some safe places in Tami Nadu and distributed in small quantities to dealers in Kerala.
The regular movement of ganja from Andhra Pradesh to Kerala through Tamil Nadu has nearly stopped with the suspension of public transport during the lockdown. But new hands, especially those who lost jobs during the lockdown, have entered the business, who are ready to take higher risks for a larger and quick profit.
If one kg of quality ganja can be procured for about ₹10,000 in Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam, the rate becomes ₹600 for a packet of four g at the retail level. The profit is so huge that many people have turned to this illegal and dangerous business by capitalising on the lockdown situation.
Checking goes down
Checking of vehicles by the police and motor vehicle authorities has considerably gone down. Fear of contracting COVID-19 is always there among the officers. “We always exercise caution while checking vehicles,” said S. Mansoor Ali, excise inspector who was among a squad that seized 66 kg of ganja from Nadupuni border last week.
The lockdown forced ganja farmers in Andhra and Odisha to stock up the yield, tempting daring youngsters from Kerala to go there and smuggle it in big vehicles.
