CHENNAI : A series of raids on ganja cultivation areas had brought down the sales of narcotics to a great extent, police say.

After media reports that ganja chocolates were circulating in Chennai and other parts of the State, the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau (NIB CID) police cracked down, arresting sellers.

The ganja, stuffed in powder form inside chocolates, costs anywhere between Rs 50 and Rs 200 or even more, depending on the quality, an officer said.

A senior police officer of the NIB CID told The Hindu that 1,136 cases were registered in 2006; in the last four months alone, 516 cases were booked.

The cultivation of ganja is prevalent in Idukki, Kerala and in Theni district bordering Kerala. The growers encroach upon reserve forest areas to grow ganja. Several raids were conducted in the above areas in which, 1.37 lakh kilos of ganja were destroyed and 12 persons were arrested.

For the first time, the NIB destroyed poppy plantations worth Rs 5 crore in Kotagiri recently and arrested four persons. He said successful intelligence gathering by various agencies had helped the drive.

Goondas Act

The police had detained 16 people under the Goondas Act last year and eight till April 2007.

Habitual offenders were being detained under the Act, the officer said, claiming that the flow of ganja into the State had dropped because of the crackdown.

He said narcotics still arrived in small quantities from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, Thuli in Orissa and other places. Recently, a woman from Ponnangal Pattinam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh was arrested near Chennai Central railway station with 15 kg of ganja.

The ganja from Andhra Pradesh is priced at around Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per kilo, while the Kerala variety fetched between Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000, the officer said.

He claimed that with the raids, the sale of ganja chocolates had fallen phenomenally.

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