Pradhan among 5 held with ganja worth Rs 32 lakh

LUCKNOW: Five people including a

gram pradhan

were arrested with 210kg of

ganja

worth Rs 32 lakh on Tuesday.

Officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) also said that Lucknow had become a transit point for psychotropic substances.

The city has seen a rise in such cases with 33 arrests in 2015 to 59 in 2016 and 177 in 2017. On January 6, NCB had arrested Mohammed Akhlaq for involvement in drug trade from Indiranagar.

On Tuesday, gram pradhan of Ratapur in Rae Bareli Shiv Pratap Singh (36), Pushpendra Singh (25), Rahul (19), Rajendra (50) and Premnath (35) were arrested from Maharajganj. They were on board a truck bearing registration number of

Nagaland

and carrying 210kg of ganja.

The consignment is worth Rs 32 lakh, said the NCB officials.

The local intelligence cell of Lucknow had informed NCB of the movement of the consignment from Malda district in

West Bengal

. Kingpin Manik Das is the procurer and those nabbed were members of his gang. They had to carry the consignment to New Delhi.

Police said cannabis procured from Nepal was being sent to New Delhi and Jaipur via Lucknow regularly. The STF had also made many arrests of cannabis in the city in 2017.

Police are in touch with sleuths of STF and NCB for making a team to stop this menace.

NCB zonal director Birendra Kumar said the gang had a unique modus operandi. They used to change the registration number of the truck used for carrying the consignment.

They had installed a twoinch false cavity on the floor of the truck to conceal the substance. On it would be cucumbers and sugarcane to evade police checks.

“Efforts are on to nab others associated with the gang,” said Kumar.