Ganja racket busted

Four persons involved in a ganja racket were arrested by the Irinjalakuda police on Saturday.

The arrested are Shameer, 29, of Karuvannur, Sasi, 44, of Cheloor, Raju, 35, of Nadavarmbu and Vipin, 21, of Karuvannur.  The police seized around 2 kg of ganja from them.

The police said the gang had been exporting ganja to the Middle East in the guise of ayurveda products for the past few years.  The police said Shameer, the kingpin of the racket, used to approach people wanting to go to the Gulf for job and request them to carry a packet of ayurveda medicine for his relatives there. Once they agreed, he would hand over a packet of ganja calling it ayurveda medicine and his agent in the Gulf would collect the consignment from them at the airport, the police said.

The information on the ganja racket was received by the Thrissur rural police chief P H Ashraf. The ganja was brought from AP and TN by the other three accomplices. The police have tightened the monitoring of vehicles coming from outside the city. The arrested have been remanded in judicial custody. A case has been registered in the Irinjalakuda police station.