AP excise department destroys 110 acres of ganja plantations in Vizag

Andhra Pradesh Prohibition and Excise Department officials have burnt down ganja plantations in 110 acres in the Gallalaputtu Village, under Pedabayalu Police Station limits in Vizag District, on Sunday.

Excise and Prohibition Deputy Commissioner, T Srinivasa Rao, informed that the department received credible information about the ganja cultivation in the Agency areas. Acting on the tipoff, 40 personnel of the Excise Department, from Anakapalle and Paderu, conducted a joint operation with 40 local policemen. A total of 5 lakh ganja plants were cut down and set ablaze, during the operation. The total worth of the destroyed ganja is expected to be around Rs 11 crore.

This is the second raid by the State Excise Department in January 2020. Last Thursday, the officials destroyed a ganja plantation, spread over 35 acres, in Boddaputtu Village in Paderu Mandal. Last year, in September, the Visakhapatnam Police held a ganja disposal operation in which Rs 13 crore worth ganja was destroyed, at the Kapuluppada dumping yard. A total of 63,879 kg of contraband which was confiscated in 455 smuggling cases, at thirteen police stations in Visakhapatnam District, was set ablaze, as per court orders, in the presence of the Drug Disposal Committee.

Additionally, on Sunday, a Special Task Force (STF) of the Excise and Prohibition Department arrested a 25-year old, for smuggling 156 kg of ganja, in Narsipatnam. According to sources, the accused has been identified as G Dora Babu, a resident of Tuni, in East Godavari District. Dora Babu, along with two other men, had allegedly procured the contraband from the Vizag Agency. The Special Task Force intercepted his four-wheeler at Gabbada Bridge near Narsipatnam Junction and arrested him. Two more accused managed to flee, after noticing the officials. A case has been registered in this regard. The STF has launched a search operation to nab the remaining accused.