Chennai: In the last four weeks since the brutal killing of three persons in the marijuana turf war on Deepavali day in Kannagi Nagar off OMR, police squads engaging in a clean-up operation has resulted in the arrest of nearly 100 ganja peddlers and the seizure of more than 70 kg of ganja.
“So far we have arrested 95 to 100 people, including women for trafficking and selling ganja in Chennai during the last one month. All of them are booked under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act,” a senior police official disclosed.
Only because of sustained and continuous drive have we managed to book so many peddlers during the month, the officer said. Some regular users of marijuana said they were finding it difficult to get the ‘item’ from the ‘regular spots’. “All those spots in and around Marina beach, Tambaram, Nungambakkam and Ashok Nagar have vanished. Even after making a chain of phone calls, we are not able to get the pottlam (packets). All of them are asking us to wait for a few more weeks,” a youth from Nandambakkam said.
Police had arrested peddlers, their suppliers, including a woman named Rajeswari of K.K. Nagar, who had been controlling the ganja supply chain in south Chennai.
“Once the supply chain is hit, local peddlers will go dry and it will be difficult for them to establish a new contact in the narcotics world,” police disclosed.
Three youths were killed in a group clash over territorial control of sale of marijuana on Deepavali night in Kannagi Nagar. This had forced the top brass of the Chennai police to whip up subordinates to book narcotics peddlers in the city.
