Over 50 Bighas Of Ganja Plantation Seized, Over 8000 Plants Destroyed
Jaipur: In one of the biggest crackdowns on illegal drug trade in Rajasthan, the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), in coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), destroyed more than 50 large ganja plantations in Udaipur district and seized more than 8,000 plants, officials said on Friday. Multiple teams carried out simultaneous raids in tribal areas of Udaipur where large-scale illegal cannabis cultivation was taking place. said IG ATS Vikas Kumar.
Pointing out that the network has been operating for several years, Kumar added that drug traffickers use tribal areas as bases to grow marijuana and supply it to western and southern Rajasthan, northern Gujarat and Punjab.
The officer said the marijuana was prepared to be distributed ahead of the New Year celebrations, but the coordinated action thwarted the traffickers’ plans.
The IG emphasized that the task force has been investigating the source of the increasing supply of marijuana in Rajasthan for the last three months. While the earlier seizures were believed to have originated from Manipur, Telangana and Odisha, authorities suspected local cultivation and launched an undercover operation to trace it.
To gather intelligence, ANTF teams posed as government officials from various departments, including agriculture, energy, and irrigation, and surveyed the area under different pretexts, including soil testing, water pipeline work, and crop evaluation. The teams then consolidated the intelligence and devised a detailed strategy under Kumar’s direction.
To maintain secrecy, police teams left Jaipur disguised as devotees participating in the ‘Ambe Mata Shobha Yatra’. They stayed overnight at the Pindwara, where the locals mistook them for pilgrims. The next morning, the teams raided the identified farms before the smugglers could destroy the crop.
More than 100 police personnel from four ANTF units, along with six additional teams and three NCB teams, were involved in the operation. The task force uprooted cannabis plants spread across nearly 50 large plots of land.
It takes about three to four months for marijuana to mature and the seized crop is of high quality and fetches high prices for smugglers, Kumar said, adding that the operation aims to prevent the drug from reaching young consumers in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab.
ANTF and NCB are now investigating whether the seized marijuana was processed locally for consumption or shipped out of state to produce marijuana.
The large-scale cultivation indicates possible collusion between local contractors, middlemen and residents, which is being investigated further, Kumar said.
