35 kg ganja hidden in potatoes seized | Nagpur News

Nagpur: The Crime Branch on Saturday seized over 35 kilograms of ganja (cannabis) worth approximately Rs8 lakh hidden inside a potato consignment from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, barely a day after the nationwide launch of the anti-narcotics campaign ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’ and the city’s own intensified Anti-Drug drive under ongoing ‘Operation Thunder’. A trucker, based in Surat, Gujarat, has been arrested.The dramatic late night operation unfolded around 2.40 am, when the raiding team comprising head constable Sheshrao Raut, constables Ashwin Mange, Sameer Shaikh, Kunal Masram and others under senior inspector Darshan Patil under DCP Deepak Aggarwal zeroed on a suspiciously parked truck on the Amravati-Nagpur Road, within the limits of Wadi police station. The driver, Mohammad Shafiq (32), was found waiting inside the vehicle. Shafiq had initially claimed to be transporting potatoes. In Nagpur and surrounding region, truckers are repeatedly caught with narcotics consignments. Acting on suspicion, officers found a cache of six packets cleverly concealed and sealed with brown tape and one black plastic foil packet containing greenish-black flowers and fruits emitting a strong characteristic odour of ganja. The consignment was likely to have been brought from Visakhapatnam. The total recovery stood at 35 kg 500 grams of the narcotic substance. According to preliminary probe, Shafiq, who has no prior criminal record, received the ganja from his accomplice Ayaz Khan in Surat, Gujarat. He then travelled to Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, where he loaded a legitimate potato consignment. The truck covered over 700 kilometres before reaching Nagpur. After offloading the potatoes at Kalamna market, Shafiq drove to the Amravati Road location, apparently waiting to hand over the hidden drugs to local contacts for sale. In addition to the ganja, police seized one mobile phone and the truck. The total value of the seized ganja has been pegged around Rs8 lakh, though official estimates in the FIR mention a higher figure of Rs23,07,500 based on quantity and quality.