4.4 quintals of ganja worth Rs 3.5cr seized, truck driver held

Kanpur: In a major crackdown on interstate drug trafficking, the Kanpur Police Commissionerate seized 4.4 quintals of ganja worth Rs 3.5 crore in the international market and arrested a truck driver in the Sajeti police station area on Sunday.

The consignment was allegedly being transported from Odisha to Rajasthan.Acting on a tip-off received by ADCP (South) Sumit Sudhakar Ramteke, a police team led by ACP Ghatampur Krishnakant and Sajeti police laid a trap near Baripal Market and intercepted the truck. During the search, police recovered hundreds of packets of ganja concealed inside the vehicle. The truck driver attempted to flee but was chased and arrested.During questioning, the accused identified himself as Rameshwar, a resident of Rajasthan.

He told police that he was instructed to hand over the consignment to a person after entering Rajasthan. According to him, the recipient knew only the truck’s registration number, while traffickers based in Odisha acted as intermediaries between the sender and receiver. Police have seized the driver’s mobile phone and launched an investigation into the interstate trafficking network.Preliminary investigations revealed that the ganja was to be distributed across different districts of Rajasthan and sold in small packets.

Police also found that traffickers frequently use women and children as passengers in vehicles to avoid suspicion during transit. In this case, women and children were reportedly travelling in the truck but were dropped off before it reached Kanpur.According to police, ganja procured at a low price in Odisha fetches several times its original value by the time it reaches other states. Investigators suspect the seized consignment is linked to a major interstate drug trafficking syndicate and are trying to identify the network operating between Odisha and Rajasthan.ADCP (South) Sumit Ramteke said police acted on specific intelligence to seize 4.4 quintals of ganja and arrest the truck driver. He said the investigation into the entire trafficking network is underway and added that the police’s campaign against drug trafficking will continue.