The Anti Narcotics Wing of the Central Crime Branch on Monday arrested a 25-year-old civil engineer from Kerala and reportedly recovered 3.5 kilograms of hydroponic ganja worth ₹4.5 crore from him.

The accused, identified as Jiju Prasad, was reportedly caught red-handed while delivering the drugs in Electronic City. The accused was working in a private firm and living in an apartment in Bommasandra. The accused told the police that he was sourcing the drugs from his contact, identified as Ashwin Samuel, who is presently on the run.

The accused had a large number of customers, whom he had added to a WhatsApp group, where he received orders. He used to deliver drugs through the “drop location” method, where he used to keep the drugs in an isolated public place and share its location to the customer on WhatsApp and later take payment online. Drop location method is the most common method used by the peddlers to avoid undue attention from the police. 
The accused used to sell each gram of hydroponic ganja for a price of ₹12,000. He would carry the drugs packed in plastic covers and carry them in his backpack. The clients list is huge, mostly consisting of IT employees living in and around Electronic city and Bommasandra, the police said. 
The police are now on the lookout for Samuel who is the source of the drugs from Kerala. The police are also exploring the Kerala connection in the drugs as many peddlers are operating between Kerala and Karnataka. 
In an unrelated case, a team of police from Areekode station in Malappuram district of Kerala raided an apartment and arrested a Ugandan national for peddling MDMA to her clients through local peddlers operating from Bengaluru, last week. The accused Ugandan national, Nakubure Teopista, 30, was arrested from Electronics City. The raid was followed by the arrest of two local peddlers earlier last week who revealed the source of drugs. Following the increase of interstate drug peddling rackets, the Kerala police have heightened security and increased checks at the entry and exit points. 

In another case, police arrested a Nigerian national and reportedly recovered 1 kg of MDMA crystals worth ₹2 crore from him, taking the total seizure to ₹6.5 crore worth of narcotics in the last week. The CCB officials raided a house in Begur and arrested the accused, identified as Christian S., 44, for peddling MDMA. The accused had come to India on a visiting visa in 2012 and overstayed to peddle drugs. The officials booked him under the NDPS case and alerted the FRRO officials to initiate his deportation process.