Hyderabad: A daring smuggler, inspired by the movie Pushpa, tried to transport ganja across state borders, hiding it in cement bags instead of the red sandalwood featured in the film.
On a Tuesday morning, the Special Operations Team (SOT) from Maheshwaram Zone, alongside Abdullahpurmet police, stopped a TATA Ultra truck at Kothaguda X Road on National Highway 65. Relying on solid intelligence, they halted the truck and uncovered a massive 1,210 kilograms of ganja. The drugs, packed under layers of cement bags and covered with tarpaulin, were worth Rs 6.25 crore in the illegal market.
Commissioner G. Sudheer Babu shared that the operation uncovered a route that stretched from Malkangiri‘s forests through Kalimela, Dangalam, Mothuguda, Bhadrachalam, and Khammam, with plans to move the ganja through Hyderabad to Rajasthan. This interstate network was effectively dismantled by the police.
The truck driver, Vikram Vishnoi (alias Vikas), aged 22 from Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, was caught at the scene. Investigations found that Devilal (alias Katu), Aayub Khan, and Ramlal, all from Osian Tehsil, Jodhpur, recruited him. They promised him Rs 5 lakh for each trip transporting ganja from Odisha’s Malkangiri to Rajasthan.
Vishnoi initially drove the truck, loaded with iron, from Jaipur to Nanded, Maharashtra. He then headed to Khammam, Telangana, to buy cement bags to disguise the ganja. Following his handlers’ instructions, he went to Malkangiri, where local suppliers packed the ganja into 5 kg bundles, hidden under cement bags for the trip to Rajasthan.
This successful operation was led by Commissioner G. Sudheer Babu, IPS, with guidance from ADCP Md. Shakir Hussain, ACP P. Sathaiah, and on-ground leadership from Inspector T. Ravi Kumar, SOT Maheshwaram Zone, with support from the Abdullapurmet police team.
