155 Kg Of Cannabis Seized In Drug Bust By Excise Dept In Thiruvananthapuram; 4 Arrested

In a major drug bust, Excise officials seized 155 kilograms of cannabis and 61 grams of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), a synthetic drug from a vehicle and house at Pallithura on Sunday and arrested four men who are accused of bringing the narcotics to Kerala from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
    
The drugs were seized while the culprits were unloading the narcotics from their vehicle into their rented accommodation at Nehru Junction in the Pallithura area of the state capital, an Excise officer said. 
    
Giving details of the case, the officer said all four accused went to Visakhapatnam by road to buy the drugs, and after that two of them returned by air while the remaining two brought the drugs back by road in their vehicle. 
    
The officer said that the Excise department was aware of increasing incidents of drug smuggling in the coastal areas and as part of the nearly month-long investigation into it, the agency received secret information about the transportation of the cannabis from Visakhapatnam by road. 
    
"We followed the vehicle when it entered Kerala to their home and when they began unloading it, we caught them in the act. Around 133 kg of cannabis was seized from their vehicle. The remaining was seized from their home," the officer told PTI. 
    
The raid and the subsequent seizure and arrests took place in the afternoon and the related procedures are still going on, he said. 
    
He further said that any involvement of others, in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, would be revealed only after the sustained interrogation of the four accused, who are in the age group between 21 and 34 years.