Visakhapatnam: Ganja smugglers are using women from financially-weak families of south Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for transportation of the contraband from parts of Vizag Agency. Posing as tourists, the women have been smuggling the contraband in cars from the remote areas. The lure of easy money is drawing these women into the illegal trade.
Sources in police and excise said some women gangs were playing a key role in supplying ga-nja to university and college campuses in the region. Recently, a 24-year-old woman from West Bengal Jharina Roy and her companion Devraj Samal from Odisha were arrested for smuggling over 80-kg dry ganja near Rachapalle area under Makavarapalem police station limits in Vizag district.
Few months ago, five women from different states were arrested for ganja smuggling and there were some more in-stances that women fr-om Tamil Nadu, Odisha and other states were arrested for transporting contraband in Vizag region. With the increasing demand for marijuana among the urban youth in metro cities, inter-state ganja smugglers are adopting innovative and sophisticated ways to transport narcotic goods to other cities and states.
The inter-state ganja smugglers are using women and girls to transport the contraband from one place to another place in luxury cars, said assistant commissioner of Excise S.V.V.N. Babji Rao. “Though the law is same for every motorist, women motorists are often spared from checking of baggage and others, hence, the inter-state gangs are using women to evade check posts of police and excise officials,” said a senior police officer.
The women smugglers get Rs 15,000 for a trip (transporting the contraband from one location to another location). “The women never procure the contraband in bulk, fearing trouble, and always use luxury cars to transport the weed posing as visitors,” the officer added. “Though we arrested some women peddlers, new women gangs have been entering the city to supply the weed to youngsters,” said ACP (Task Force) I. Chittibabu.
