Police have impounded a lorry, used for smuggling ganja, and detained the driver, who had allegedly offloaded about 200 kg of the narcotic substance, which was smuggled to Sri Lanka via sea route from Chinna Mayakulam seashore area in Erwadi on Sunday.
The driver was returning after offloading 20 bundles of the contraband, when a police party intercepted the vehicle at Tirupullani Vilakku Road on Sunday evening, and secured the driver, identified as R. Nagarajan, for interrogation. He hailed from Tiruvallur district. Superintendent of Police N.M. Mylvahanan said on Monday that interrogation of the driver revealed that he had received the contraband from one Narayanan in Visakhapatnam and came all the way to Erwadi as instructed by the lorry owner.
The driver also told the police that he was received by someone in the local area, suspected to be a drug peddler, and offloaded the contraband, which was later loaded onto a vallam (country boat) and smuggled to Sri Lanka, the SP said.
Police sources said the lorry had Chennai registration and the owner has been identified as Anandavel from Thambaram. The driver said after he received the contraband, he was instructed to proceed to Erwadi.
His role was limited to handing over the consignment and he was paid Rs. 15,000 for the trip, he told the police. The driver also told the police that he had offloaded similar bundles to a person at Uchipulli a fortnight ago.
Mr. Mylvahanan said the carriage portion of the lorry was specially designed with secret chambers for the purpose of smuggling the drug. “We are probing the case,” the SP said, adding more details would be available once the lorry owner was traced.
Meanwhile, the Q Branch police have launched a probe to trace the local drug peddler.
