5 held for ganja trade, Rs 84 lakh worth weed seized in Anakapalle

Visakhapatnam: The Nathavaram police of Anakapalle district arrested five persons for their involvement in transporting 168 Kg of ganja valued at Rs 84 lakh in the district on Monday. The arrested persons have been identified as Gullupalli Haribabu (36), the alleged mastermind from Mandapeta, East Godavari district, Vanthala Davidu (30) and Bonda Prabhakar Rao (30), both from Alluri Sitarama Raju district, who sourced the Ganja, Korra Bonjubabu (50), also from ASR district and Veeravalli Durga Rao alias Prasad (30) from Mandapeta, EG district. Two others, Machavarapu Prasad and Vanthala Eliya, escaped from the scene and are absconding.Narsipatnam sub-division DSP, P Srinivasa Rao, said the prime accused, Haribabu, is an accused in NDPS cases, developed a network with ganja suppliers from the ASR district while he was in prison. After his release, he purchased around 15 SIM cards and four keypad mobile phones to communicate with his associates covertly, he added. Later, Haribabu purchased two Bolero vans and created specialised hidden cabins for cannabis transportation.The gang had transported ganja to Dindigul of Tamil Nadu, more than 12 times and sold the weed for over Rs 50,000 per kg in the retail market. For each trip, Haribabu paid his associates Rs 1 lakh each from the profits. When the gang was transporting over 168 kgs of dry weed in two vehicles to Tamil Nadu, they were caught by the police.