A 31-year-old who won an Indian state’s award for best young farmer was arrested for smuggling synthetic drugs hidden inside banana bunches.
Dhanesh Nair, known as Dani, was arrested on Monday in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, carrying 8gm of MDMA and 803gm of suspected hashish oil, police said.
Mr Nair won Kerala’s Best Young Farmer award in 2022. He was currently living near Mysuru in neighbouring Karnataka state.
Mr Nair was the “main accused in a drug smuggling gang” that moved large quantities of MDMA from Karnataka to Kerala, police said, adding that he had recruited young people to distribute the drugs to dealers and consumers.
Mr Nair used banana plantations and farmland in Nanjangud near Mysuru as cover, police alleged, adding that videos on his phone showed drugs being concealed in banana bunches.
"He has been transporting all kinds of synthetic drugs, concealed inside banana bunches, from Karnataka to Kerala for some time," a police officer involved in the investigation told the paper Hindustan Times. "He has a network of people to distribute them in several districts of the state.”
Mr Nair’s arrest followed the detention of two men who police claimed worked with him. Harikrishnan KS, 32, was arrested on 8 November with 185gm of MDMA, which police valued at about £6,500. Shinu Sebastian, 34, was held with 7gm of MDMA, which police said was concealed in a birdcage at his house.
The two of them had brought the drugs to Kerala from Tamil Nadu state on a tourist bus, hidden inside a banana bunch, and that the drugs were meant for sale in Ernakulam and Aluva, police said. They distributed the drugs on Mr Nair's instructions through Instagram and passed the money to him.
The officer told Hindustan Times the two men "helped him transport the drugs to Keralam and also sometimes bought from him and sold them on their own", and that they "were propelled by the high profit margins they were getting".
Indian media reported that police also seized some drugs from a bird feeder at Mr Nair's house and received evidence pointing to links between Mr Nair and Nigerian nationals in Bengaluru who were involved in drug manufacturing and supply. "We have to find out how big his network is in Kerala and how many people worked for him," the officer said.
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