Attingal: The excise enforcement squad seized 501.5kg ganja, worth over Rs 20 crore, from a container lorry at Attingal in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district on Sunday.

This is the biggest seizure of ganja in the state, according to the excise.

A Keralite gang based in Mysore is suspected to be behind this. The ganja from Mysore was being transported to a godown at Chirayinkeezhu in the district, when the lorry was intercepted at Korani in Attingal by the excise sleuths.

The drugs in 229 packets, weighing 2kg to 5kg, were concealed in a hidden cavity above the driver's cabin.

Lorry driver Kuldeep Singh, 32, from Punjab, and cleaner Krishna, 23, from Jharkhand, were arrested. The godown owner too has been nabbed, according to sources.

The drug racket planned to target students in Thrissur, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Thiruvananthapuram districts.

The accused said that the drugs were procured from Punjab native Raju Bhai, who is based out of Hyderabad. This person had also provided the 100kg of cannabis that was seized from Wayanad one month ago, the excise said. The lorry also belonged to Raju.

Kozhikode native Jithin Raj, who resides in Mysore, procured the ganja from Raju and peddled the drugs in various parts of Kerala through dealers. The plan was to distribute 300kg to a Thrissur native and 100kg each to dealers from Kozhikode and Thalassery.