Thiruvananthapuram Rural: Thiruvananthapuram Rural Police have arrested Jafar, also known as Anees, a Malayali who headed an inter-state drug trafficking gang, at his hideout in Balda village, Koraput district, Odisha. Jafar, originally from Kallara Thanniyam Kogivila, had settled in Odisha years ago and was leading a gang involved in cultivating ganja in Maoist-affected forest areas and smuggling it to various parts of Kerala. Payments were routed through the bank accounts of Balda villagers, and to evade capture, Jafar avoided social media and refrained from using his own SIM card. Last March, during a vehicle inspection at Vellarada Aratkuzhi, police seized 47 kg of ganja and arrested five individuals, which led to Jafar’s identification. The investigation team had been tracking him for five months, and on two occasions, he escaped into Maoist-dominated forest areas after realizing the Kerala Police were close. To outsmart him, the police posed as railway officials and spent days near the Balda Cave forest without notifying the Odisha Police. Eventually, he was arrested in a daring operation led by Thiruvananthapuram Rural SP Kiran Narayan, along with Narcotics Cell DySP Pradeep K, Neyyatinkara DySP Shaji S, the DANSAF team, and Vellarada Police. The arresting team included Vellarada SI Russell Raj R, CPO Shainu RS, DANSAF SI Bijukumar R, ASI Satikumar R, and SCPO Anish KR.
