Bengaluru, Sep 10 (IANS): The Bengaluru City police busted an inter-state ganja sale network and seized a whopping 1,350 kg of the drug worth nearly Rs 4 crore on Thursday. The police has arrested four persons in this connection.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the ganja sale network was spread over Odisha, Telangana and Karnataka.

The alleged drug smugglers had dug a huge pit (like a silo) in a sheep-rearing farm situated at Kamalapur Taluk in Kalaburagi district which was located nearly 750 km from Bengaluru in the upper-most northern part of Karnataka.

"These accused had stored as many as 600 packets totalling 1,350 kg of ganja in this pit," the police said.

The pit was filled with the ganja packets and covered with a wooden plank which was then covered with a thick layer of mud.

Speaking to reporters, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said this was the biggest such seizure in the history of Bengaluru Police.

"A day-to-day investigation led to a small clue of accused selling ganja within Seshadripuram Police station limit, where the police had seized two kg of ganja from the accused. But detailed investigations threw light on how the ganja trade was flourishing as far as Odisha to Bengaluru," the Police Commissioner explained.

According to him, the ganja was allegedly grown in the interior forests of Odisha and transported through Telangana in trucks or vehicles carrying vegetables.

"These accused used to store it in a pit in a sheep-rearing farm, as nobody could suspect that any such activity was happening in such a remote area. The packets were systematically packed and stacked in this pit," he added.

Responding to a question and heaping praise on the Seshadripuram Police, Pant said two young officers Nabisaheb and Rajasab Tehsildar "worked day and night relentlessly and approached these drug mafia members playing decoys to bust this racket".

These drug sellers were seasoned smugglers, and initially did not fall prey to our efforts but prolonged and consistent efforts yielded results. It paved the way for their arrest and the record seizure of drugs, he added.