Aska: As many as 30 quintals of cannabis stashed in tin boxes were seized from six houses in Krushnapur village under Patapur police limits in Ganjam district late Monday night.
In grey market, the seized contraband would have been sold for over Rs 3 crore, a police official said.
The cops were tipped off about huge quantity of ganja having been stored at several houses in Krushnapur village. Taking the information seriously, a police team and an excise department team Monday night carried out a joint raid on the village.
The raiding party found the large cache of ganja kept in huge tin boxes. The officials carried out searches in the entire village and came across six houses where the tin boxes were found. The contraband was seized.
Sources said, no one was present in those six houses at the time of raid.
Registering a case, Patapur police have launched a probe. Their efforts are on to apprehend the mafias, it was learnt.
The teams that conducted raids comprised of SIT officials, police officers and policemen from Patapur, Aska, Shergarh, Sorada and officials from Berhampur excise department. The teams led by Aska SDPO Surjyamani Pradhan carried out the raids in presence of Sanakhemundi tehsildar Srinibas Behera.
Notably, ganja cultivation was carried out on a patch of land spreading over 20 acres in jungles close to T Govindpur under Taptapani area. After getting to know that police were about to raid the locality, the mafias had cut down some cannabis plants and stored them in those six houses.
While the police and excise department had raided and destroyed the plantation, they had no idea about huge quantities of ganja being stored in houses.
PNN
