Koraput: In perhaps one of the biggest hauls of hashish oil, popularly known as liquid ganja, police on Thursday seized more than 1,800 litres of the contraband, valued at around Rs 200 crore, deep inside the forests of Koraput districtAlong with the massive quantity of hashish oil, police also seized over 1,000 kilograms of ganja worth approximately Rs 5 crore and dismantled the temporary infrastructure erected in the forest for processing the contraband.
The breakthrough comes days after an interstate coordination meeting between enforcement agencies of Odisha and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, chaired by DIG (SWR) Kanwar Vishal Singh, aimed at curbing ganja smuggling along the porous state border.Senior officers said the operation reflects the enhanced intelligence sharing and joint enforcement strategy, firmed up during the meeting.The DIG said the masterminds behind the temporary manufacturing unit of liquid ganja have been identified and will be apprehended soon. “Equipment and materials used in the extraction and processing of hashish oil were also recovered from the site. The raid is still on,” the DIG said.The high-impact raid is being carried out in a remote jungle stretch along Jholaput reservoir under Padua police station limits, situated along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border, a region long exploited by drug syndicates for its forbidding terrain and limited accessibility.According to Koraput superintendent of police Rohit Verma, who had planned and led the operation, the manufacturing unit was operating from a virtually inaccessible pocket ringed by dense forest, steep gradients and water barriers.“There are no direct motorable roads to the site. To avoid detection and prevent any leakage of information, we approached the location discreetly by boats across the reservoir and then trekked several miles through thick undergrowth before storming the makeshift facility,” Verma said.The quick assembly-and-dismantle nature of such forest-based units has long posed a formidable challenge to law enforcement agencies. By the time police close in, operators often abandon the site and disappear into the wilderness, leaving minimal evidence behind.This time, however, precise intelligence inputs and meticulous planning ensured that the network was taken by surprise.The DIG said the seizure sends a strong and unambiguous message to interstate narcotics syndicates, attempting to use the Odisha-Andhra border as a safe production and transit corridor. “This is one of the largest hashish oil seizures in recent times and a direct blow to organised interstate drug networks. The accused deliberately chose an extremely difficult location, believing the terrain would shield them from law enforcement. They were wrong,” DIG Singh said.Referring to the recent interstate coordination meeting, the DIG said the crackdown was a direct outcome of the renewed resolve to strike at the roots of the narcotics supply chain.“It was resolved during the meeting that we would intensify intelligence sharing and undertake coordinated, technology-driven operations to dismantle the supply chain at its source. This seizure is a concrete outcome of that strategy. We are no longer limiting ourselves to intercepting carriers; we are targeting and destroying the manufacturing backbone of these networks,” Singh said.
