Three men earlier detained with 22 g of MDMA were remanded in judicial custody on November 3, 2023. The suspects – V.C. Sayooj, 33, Lenin Raj, 34 and P. Siraj, 28 – were nabbed during a raid by the police at a rented building, near Thamarassery, in Kozhikode district of Kerala on November 2.
For over a year, the three had been reportedly working as drug pushers with a focus on young addicts in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. Sayooj is reportedly the leader of the gang supported by other suspected local peddlers, said the police.
During the raid, the police also recovered electronic weighing instruments, plastic covers and other “equipment” used for consumption of synthetic drugs. The police squad also collected evidence to prove the three men’s involvement in a major drug-trafficking case recently exposed by the police at Mukkom.
Police sources said they had already stepped up surveillance on a number of rented facilities in the rural areas of Kozhikode to track the movements of suspected drug pushers, apart from identifying drug hotspots for intensified vigil.
