Visakhapatnam: City cops have busted an inter-state ganja smuggling gang with the arrest of six ganja smugglers, including Tamili-ans and people of Odisha.
 
The police seized 410 kg of dry ganja from the hideout which was neatly packed in packets and kept ready to be transported to Odisha and Tamil Nadu. The gang has been operating since last one month at Suja-tha Nagar under Pendu-rthi police station limits.
 
The arrested were identified as G. Vinod Kumar, 25, and G. Lova Raju, 19, both from Lothugedda village in Chintapalli mandal, Mukkadapalli Nageswara Rao, 28, of Rolugunta, Abdul Basha, 28, of Pendurthi, Syed Khaja, 46, from Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu and Asit Debata, 24, from Cuttack, Odisha. DCP (Law and Order- Zone-II) Dr G. Ramgopal Naik said on Sunday that Vinod Kumar and Lova Raju, both brothers, have been procuring the contraband from parts of Vizag Agency and move it to Vizag city in an autorickshaw owned by them.
 
They posed as businessmen of steel and aluminum utensils and would conceal the stuff under utensils, which were loaded into the auto.  They used to store the ganja in Sujatha Nagar and used to transport the contraband in small batches through the rail or bus route to Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
 
Police said that Syed Khaja and Asit Debata were the carriers for the main operators in Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Jharkhand.  The police are investigating the links, said Dr Ramgopal Naik. The gang was arrested on Saturday night when the Rakshak police team from Pendurthi was patrolling in the Sujatha Nagar area. The gang tried to run into an isolated area and the cops chased and caught the gang.