SI’s son among seven held for drug peddling in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore city police cracked down on a drug peddling gang with the arrest of seven persons, including the son of a sub-inspector and seized a huge volume of synthetic drugs.

Acting on a tip, police arrested K Manikandan (39), S Vinayagam (34), V Krishnakanth (34), M Mahavishnu (28), D Adarsh (24), A Rithesh Lamba (41) and B Rohan Shetty (30), all hailing from different localities in Coimbatore.

Of them, Mahavishnu is the son of Vijayalakshmi, a sub-inspector in the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Coimbatore.

Police seized 24.40 grams of MDMA (ecstasy), 12.47 grams of MDMA powder, 92.43 grams of cocaine, 1.62 kg of green ganja, 1.01 kg of dry ganja and 1.68 kg of kush (cannabis). Besides the contraband, the police also seized Rs 25 lakhs, a cash counting machine, four digital weighing machines, premium brands of liquor in bulk, three cars, and 12 cell phones.

Inquiries revealed that they sourced MDMA and cocaine drugs from Maharashtra, ganja and kush from Himachal Pradesh. With the ill-gotten money, the peddlers led a lavish life, and one of them was building a new house in the Kovaipudur area, while others had bought a new house and land in Teachers Colony.

“Legal steps were initiated to seize their immovable assets. Also, efforts were taken to freeze 12 bank accounts used by the accused for illegal transactions,” said a senior official. The accused persons were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody on Friday. Further inquiry is on to crack down on their entire network.