Marijuana smugglers avoid highways, tolls in bid to evade cops
Hyderabad: Marijuana is being smuggled through internal ‘safe’ roads, rather than the highways connecting AP, Maharashtra and Karnataka, due to increased vigil, the police said.
They are adopting routes that allow them to travel to these places without entering Hyderabad city or even taking the ORR, the police said.
Investigators said that smugglers are choosing routes that do not have toll plazas, by making use of GPS map services. The smugglers also travel in a convoy of two or even three vehicles, with the decoys moving a few kilometres ahead to alert the smuggler of police checks or other suspicious activities.
The most common route used by smugglers transporting marijuana from Visakhapatnam and Odisha is through Vijayawada, Kodad, Choutuppal and the ORR near Pedda Amberpet on the city outskirts. But police said they have been clamping down on smugglers in this route, forcing them to retreat.
“Earlier, each unit worked on their own, but with the newly formed TS NAB, there is continuous coordination and information sharing, helping to clamp down on smugglers,” said a senior police official.
- Some ‘safe’ routes being used by the gangs recently:
- Visakhapatnam agency area to Vijayawada, Guntur, Macherla, Nalgonda, Kalwakurthy, Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy, Vikarabad and Sangareddy, to Maharashtra and Karnataka
- Visakhapatnam agency area to Rajahmundry, erstwhile Khammam, Warangal and bordering districts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh
- Visakhapatnam agency area to erstwhile Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad and towards Nagpur in Maharashtra
- Sangareddy to Kamareddy and towards Maharashtra