BHUBANESWAR: The state excise department has alerted its field staff and all district collectors about a disturbing intelligence input that ganja smugglers are engaging school and college students as courier agents or peddlers to escape the law. The department also strongly suspects connivance between organised mafia gangs and some local enforcement officials (excise and police) behind rampant cultivation of cannabis and smuggling of the narcotics substance to other states.TOI possesses a letter, sent by excise secretary Nikunj Bihari Dhal last month, in which he expressed concern over students being used in the illegal act. Department sources said two college students were detained in Kandhamal district nearly six months ago while carrying ganja in bus. The students had told the police and excise officials that a smuggler had given them the consignment to send to another trader. “Traders and transporters have been resorting to new tactics to escape the law. They are using students as courier agents,” read the letter.The letter also stated that the cannabis cultivation and trading reached an alarming level in Odisha. Dhal, a senior IAS officer, said the origin of most of the cannabis seized by narcotics control bureau (NCB), directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and customs at different places in Odisha and other states was traced to the southern districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Rayagada and Malkangiri. “Consistent efforts of enforcement agencies have yielded positive results in Angul, Sambalpur and Deogarh districts. However, the actions taken so far do not seem to have a sufficient deterrent effect in the southern parts of the state,” Dhal told TOI. He stated that the enforcement agencies often faced difficulty in tracing and destroying the cannabis plants that are being cultivated in inaccessible hilly terrains.

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