Vijayawada:In a joint operation, Anti-Narcotics Cell, along with law and order police of NTR district, arrested 17 ganja peddlers, including two juveniles. Authorities seized 46 kg of the narcotic from their possession.
The arrested have been identified as Mallepolu Siva Naga Mahesh (26), Dhuli Venkatesh (23), Jajjanam Naresh alias Mechanic Naresh (25), D. Venkamraju alias Nani (24), Seelam Charan (24), Vanam Aravind alias Aarvi (25), Syeed Ali alias Ali (30), K. Sai Kiran (25), Kota Naga Durga Prasad (35), Konduri Sai Baba alias Sai (32), Kammaganti Nikhil (20), Kakani Devaraju alias Pandu (28), Pilla Sai Kumar alias Kalupukottu Nani (23) and K. Pawan Kalyan (20), all hailing from various places in NTR, Krishna, Guntur and Visakhapatnam districts.
Disclosing their modus operandi to media persons, NTR district commissioner of police (CP) S.V. Rajasekhar Babu said addicted to ganja, prime accused Sai and Pandu from Koyyuru in Visakhapatnam district decided to make quick money by procuring large quantity of ganja at lesser price from agency areas in Visakhapatnam district and selling the banned drug at higher amounts in small quantities to customers in Vijayawada and surrounding areas.
The CP said so far, police and the Anti-Narcotics Cell teams have seized total 185 kg of ganja within the NTR district limits, arrested 77 ganja smugglers and booked 28 cases against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
