Pushpa ploy: Two men attempt smuggling ganja in oil tanker in Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram: Influenced by the tricks of smuggling from the latest Telugu movie- Pushpa, two men attempted to smuggle 763 kilograms of ganja in an oil tanker. There are several movies based on true incidents. However, it seems that the popular Telugu movie- Pushpa has been influencing smugglers to peddle drugs.

In the movie, the lead actor Allu Arjun finds a clever way to smuggle red sandalwood past security and checkpoints. He piles the red sandalwood logs in one half of a huge tank and fills the other half with milk. In the movie, the police fail to notice the smuggled items.

SI of S Kota J. Tarakeswara Rao said that in a similar way, on Sunday, ganja was attempted to be smuggled. "Ganja was filled in numerous gunny bags and put in the tanker. The vehicle was headed towards Visakhapatnam," Tarakeswara Rao said. He further informed that the ganja has been seized and that the tanker was carrying a registered number of the West Bengal State Transport Department.

"When the driver spotted the police at Baddavora Checkpost under S Kota police Station in Vizianagaram district, he immediately fled the vehicle," Mr. Rao said.

Mr. Rao explained that since S Kota is on the border of Visakhapatnam Agency there are a lot of ganja smuggling cases. "In the last 20 days, around 900 kilos of ganja has been seized by the S Kota police in 9-10 cases including the recent oil tanker case," he said. He further said that this is the first time an oil tanker has been used to smuggle ganja and said that it's possible that the drug peddlers might have got the idea from Pushpa.

A similar incident occurred a few days ago when a Bengaluru-based driver attempted to smuggle red sandalwood in his truck. The driver- Yasin Inayithulla was on his way from the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border to Maharashtra when the Maharashtra police nabbed him. The police seized red sandalwood worth Rs. 2.45 crores.