The coast guard personnel seized 17.05 kilograms of ganja off Fourth Island near Rameswaram in a joint coordinated operation with customs and other security agencies yesterday.
On receiving information regarding likely transshipment of contraband off Fourth Island, coast guard station Mandapam launched a combined operation by deploying hovercraft acv h-190 along with customs officials.
A thorough rummaging of area near Fourth Island off Rameswaram resulted in seizure of 17.050 kgs of ganja contained in 8 packets buried under sand, wrapped in brown paper and covered with polythene bags.
Rummaging of the entire area was undertaken for further possibility of hiding contraband and presence of personnel or boat in the area. However, no boat or person was sighted.
The hovercraft handed over the seized contraband to the customs officials on arrival at Mandapam.
It is suspected that the contraband was smuggled from Andhra Pradesh and was intended to be ferried to Sri Lanka. However, due to the enhance security measures by various security agencies, smugglers couldn't succeed in their ulterior motives.
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The Indian Coast Guard station Mandapam is in close liaison with other intelligence agencies to prevent such occurrence in future.
It may be noted that the Indian Coast Guard had earlier seized 652 kgs of ganja on June 16, 2015, near lands end at Dhanushkodi.
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