Task force to deal with drug, ganja gangs in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: City Police Commissioner Dr A. Ravi Shankar has come up with the idea of having a special task force to curb the flow of ganja and other harmful narcotic substances to the city.

Soon after taking charge, the new commissioner noted that Visakhapatnam was a transit point for ganja smugglers and drug abuse was rampant. The city is now one of the largest consumers of ganja in AP. Use of narcotic drugs is also being reported at regular intervals from some posh localities, colleges and university hostels.

The commissioner told the media that the task force would place sniffer dogs at the city’s entry points. The dogs that are trained to locate explosives would additionally be trained for sniffing out ganja and drugs, he said.

Despite serious efforts being put in by the police for checking the ganja smuggling in ASR district and agency tracts bordering Odisha, huge quantities of ganja are being smuggled out regularly, with significant quantities arriving in Vizag city.

After checks increased on trains and road routes, the smugglers are now using country-made boats to cross the river, a distance of 5km, to transport the weed from Odisha to the Andhra border.

Investigations have shown that K. Ramesh, a native of Chintapalle mandal in ASR district, transported the weed by the river route from Odisha to AP border during the night time.

The Andhra-Odisha border is a major ganja growing region. Inter-state smugglers with support from local gangs manage to procure the weed from Odisha via the river route and transport it to various parts of the country from ASR district.

The AP police destroyed over 2.45 lakh of seized ganja in 2022 and arrested over 25 members of inter-state smuggling gangs in 2023.

Special police and excise teams destroyed ganja in 5,000 acres during the last two years under the Parivartana programme. The weed is grown in 10,000 acres and the annual turnover is about  Rs 1,000 crore.