Visakhapatnam: Apart from smuggling red sanders in Chittoor, people from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu play a vital role in smuggling ganja (marijuana) to Chennai from parts of Vizag.

Ganja smugglers from Tamil Nadu have been encouraging locals in Vizag Agency to cultivate the Sheelavathi variety of cannabis in vast valley tracts by investing and providing them with modern equipment and latest cultivation methods.

Sources from the police and prohibition and excise departments have confirmed the spurt in the illegal drug trade at the borders of Vizag Agency and Odisha thanks to the powerful interstate mafia, particularly from Tamil Nadu.

The illegal trade is pegged at Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 crore per annum in Vizag with the plant being cultivated in over 20,000 acre in G.K. Veedhi, G. Madugula, Chintapalle, Peadabayalu, and bordering areas of Odisha.

Officials say 80,000 kg of ganja, valued at Rs 100 crore, have been seized by excise and police departments in the last four years. Around 1,750 smugglers, 20 per cent of whom were from Tamil Nadu, were arrested under various sections of the NDPS Act.

This, they say, is only the tip of the iceberg as most of the smuggling goes undetected.

Deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise, Vizag, Mr M. Satyanarayana, said ganja smugglers are arrested and contraband seized every second day in Vizag district and in one out of four cases, they are from Tamil Nadu. He added that most of the contraband also usually heads toward Tamil Nadu.

He said that people from the neighbouring state have settled in the Vizag Agency as small-time traders though they are actually the middlemen between the ganja cultivators and smugglers and aid in procuring and transportation the contraband to Tamil Nadu.

The illegal plant has become a major cash crop in Vizag Agency with the smugglers paying Rs 2,000 a kg for quality ganja. Due to this, thousands of locals in Vizag Agency and Odis-ha border are involved in ganja cultivation. They are also being lured to work in the plantations and as carriers. Superintendent of police (Visakha Rural) Mr Koya Praveen said some inter-state smugglers, including people from Tamil Nadu, were involved in the ganja trade in Vizag Agency. He added that the cops were continuously seizing materials and arresting the inter-state smugglers.

Sources, meanwhile, said that while the officials were nabbing small-time smugglers, the actual bosses sitting in TN were going scot-free as enforcement officials were not visiting the neighbouring state to nab them after conducting proper investigation.

Tough terrain makes it difficult to curb trade

Vizag has emerged as a safe haven for ganja growers as enforcement officials fear to venture into the interiors of Vizag Agency.

Inaccessible terrains and the Maoist threat usually come in the way for officials to root out the ganja menace.

Sources said that the flourishing ganja trade in Vizag and borders of East Godavari and Odisha has become a major source of income for growers, traders, Maoists and also a few officials.

SP (Vizag Rural), Mr Koya Praveen, said that the cops could only destroy the ganja plantations on the roadsides and at accessible villages and their priority was to seize the contraband during transportation and nabbing the smugglers.