The Ramanathapuram district police in Tamil Nadu in a raid conducted on Wednesday have seized 304 kilograms of ganja (cannabis) that was to be smuggled to Sri Lanka, and arrested three suspects, a Times of India report said.
The police found ganja packed in 152 sealed packets, each packet weighing two kilograms.
The police arrested three men identified as N Jeya Ganesh, 35, of Natarajapuram in Rameswaram, V Ketheeswaran alias Muthu, 37, of Panchanthangi and M Murugan, 45, of Sundaramudiyan and were on the lookout for the main suspect identified as Raja from whose house the special teams seized the ganja packets.
Ramanathapuram superintendent of police Omprakash Meena said the police are looking for Raja. He said the entire stock of Ganja was seized from Raja’s house in the Mandapam refugee camp.
The SP said three special teams of the district police conducted a raid in a couple of locations based on a tip-off from the Q branch police that a heavy stock of ganja was to be smuggled to Sri Lanka.
The seizure took place two days after the Sri Lankan navy detained four men from Rameswaram when they were sailing to the island nation with a heavy stock of ganja. The accused dropped the contraband in the sea, of which a portion of their smuggled lot weighing about 40 kg was recovered.
Omprakash Meena said the police were jointly working with the Coast Guard, Navy and other intelligence, enforcement and security agencies to check smuggling ganja from Rameswaram to Sri Lanka. “We are sharing information on smuggling and working to put an end to it,” he added.
