Man arrested after cannabis found hidden inside pressure cooker during police raid

THRISSUR: A 40-year-old man was arrested after police allegedly found cannabis hidden inside a pressure cooker at his house in Adupputty near Kunnamkulam. The accused, identified as Bineesh, was taken into custody after officers seized 400 grams of cannabis during a raid.

The arrest was made as part of Operation Toofan, the state-wide anti-drug crackdown launched by Kerala Police. According to officials, police received confidential information that narcotics were being stored at a house in Adupputty. Acting on the tip-off, a team led by Kunnamkulam Sub-Inspector Rakesh conducted a search of the premises. During the inspection, officers heard a pressure cooker whistle from the kitchen. Moments later, they detected the smell of cannabis and decided to inspect the cooker. On examination, police found a packet of cannabis concealed inside rice that was being cooked on the stove. Police said Bineesh had previously been named as an accused in a case involving an alleged knife attack on an excise inspector and members of his team.

Meanwhile, Operation Toofan has resulted in the arrest of 795 people in 728 cases so far. Authorities have seized 626 grams of MDMA, 48.14 kilograms of cannabis, 136 grams of hashish oil, and 480 cannabis beedis during the operation. Police have registered 115 cases under the COTPA Act and 469 cases under the NDPS Act. To trace the source of narcotics, special teams consisting of 16 members each have been deployed across all 84 police subdivisions in the state.

In another major development, police arrested two foreign nationals allegedly linked to an international drug trafficking network that supplies synthetic drugs from abroad. Nigerian national Samuel Okafor, an accused in a drug case registered at Pandalam Police Station, was arrested in Delhi. A foreign woman identified as Elsina Sanatan Sosa, wanted in a case registered at Perunad Police Station in Pathanamthitta district, was arrested in Bengaluru.