THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram rural police have arrested the head of an inter-state drug smuggling gang from his hideout in Odisha. The Thiruvananthapuram rural police arrested Jaffar alias Anees, who was hiding in Balda village of Odisha's Koraput district. Anees was nabbed by a DANSAF team led by district police chief Kiran Narayan and Vellarada police.

A native of Kallara Thanniyam Kuzhivila, Jaffar had come to Odisha many years ago and settled down. He is the head of a gang that cultivates ganja in Maoist-dominated forest areas and smuggles loads of ganja to various parts of Kerala. The transactions were made through the bank accounts of Balda villagers. He also did not use social media and did not use his own SIM card to avoid being caught.

In March last year, the police had arrested five persons with 47 kg of ganja during a vehicle check at Arattukuzhi in Vellarada. The investigation reached Jaffar after they were questioned.

The investigating team had been following him for the last five months. On two occasions, he realised the presence of Kerala Police in a village in Odisha and moved into the Maoist-dominated forest area. Realizing this, the investigating team reached Balda village in the guise of railway officials. To arrest Jaffar, they stayed in the forest near Balda cave for days without even informing the Odisha police.
The accused was arrested in a probe conducted by the DANSAF team led by Narcotics Cell DySP Pradeep K and Neyyattinkara DySP Shaji S apart from Thiruvananthapuram Rural SP. Vellarada sub-inspector Rasal Raj R, CPO Shinu RS, DANSAF sub-inspector Bijukumar R, assistant sub-inspector Sathikumar R and SCPO Aneesh KR were part of the team.