Surat becomes the gateway for Ganja cartels from Odisha

Surat (Gujarat) : While the porous Gujarat coastline has become a source of concern for law enforcement due to the easy smuggling route for drug cartels from other countries, Surat has become a gateway for Odisha’s Ganja mafias. Ganja cartels are hiring young Odisha smugglers to smuggle ganja to Surat via railways.

Surat police apprehended three smugglers in their twenties at the Simada checkpoint with 15 kilogrammes of ganja worth Rs 1.53 lakh. The trio arrived in Surat by train from Odisha and were walking down the street to deliver the consignment to the buyer in Simada when they were apprehended by police.

According to police sources, the accused were working as labourers in Hyderabad and were not paid their wages. They eventually fled to Odisha and joined the Ganja cartel. Their first smuggling assignment was to supply ganja to Lipan Narayan Naik and Santosh in Surat.

Manoj Bhaskar Barik, 22, Chandankumar Trinath Lenka, 25, and Kanhu Sibaprasad Bahera, 21, have all been identified as residents of Sahaspur in Odisha’s Khurda district.

According to the National Family Health Survey for 2019-21, tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis consumption in Odisha is significantly higher than the national average. Odisha consumes far more intoxicants than other states, including tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol. Odisha ranks sixth among states in terms of tobacco consumption among people over the age of 15, with 38.41% compared to the national average of 23.31%.

Odisha ranked ninth in India in terms of alcohol consumption among people over the age of 15, while the national average was 9.91%. Arunachal Pradesh led the way with 38.42%.

In terms of cannabis use, Odisha was in the red zone at 4.5%, trailing only Sikkim at 7.3%, while the national average was 1.2%.

Gujarat is now the third-worst state in terms of drug overdose deaths. In 2021, nearly 3 metric tonnes of heroin (or 2,988.21 kg) worth more than Rs 21,000 crore were seized from the containers.

According to ATS sources, the porous Gujarat coastline has become an easy smuggling route for foreign drug cartels. According to the source, small heroin manufacturing units are sprouting up all over Gujarat.