Police also recovered 30 kg of marijuana worth Rs 10 lakh, Rs 25,750 in cash, packing machine and Tata Zest vehicle from the accused.
The Noida police on Tuesday arrested four persons including a minor for allegedly selling marijuana outside schools, colleges and other public places. The cops informed that all of them were given protection by a senior journalist in Noida.
They were identified as Vijay Pathak from Mainpuri; Kishore Kumar, a resident of Sector 9 (Noida); Peeyush from Banda and a minor from Noida.
Police also recovered 30 kg of marijuana worth Rs 10 lakh, Rs 25,750 in cash, packing machine and Tata Zest vehicle from the accused.
According to the police officials, the gang was operated by Hema and her husband. Hema was the kingpin of the gang. Both of them were arrested by Noida police on Monday (December 24). She was operating the illegal business from her residence in JJ Colony in Sector 18 for the last ten years.
The miscreants smuggled the marijuana from Ghaziabad and Bihar. “During the police investigation, it was also revealed that they used to sell the marijuana near some high rise housing societies in sectors 74, 76 and others," police said.
“The gang was protected by Lalit Mohan, who claims himself as a senior journalist and a resident of Sector 27 in Noida. He is absconding as of now. He used to take some money as a share and guide them. He used to know Hema for a long time,” Manoj Pant, SHO of Sector 20 Police Station said.
Pant also said that police also recovered 70 packets of smack weighing one gram each, an electronic weighing machine, 10 kg of packing polythene, one packet sealing machine and one polythene warming machine.
“The drugs were being sold to the locals in the nearby areas. The marijuana was sealed in two different packets of Rs 200 (5 grams) and Rs 100 (2.5 grams) and then distributed,” Pant added.
