An assistant sub-inspector of police and three others were arrested in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Saturday night on the charges of ganja smuggling.

Malkangiri, about 600km from here, is on the Odisha-Andhra border and is notorious for ganja cultivation and smuggling.

The accused ASI has been identified as Jayadash Khara. He was posted in the district’s Kartanpalli area. He was arrested by a special police squad while going along with three others in a car on Saturday with the cannabis. Ganja weighing 420 kg, a laptop, Rs 10,000 cash, a car and two motorcycles were recovered from the accused, police sources said.

During the last one year police and excise officials have seized ganja worth several crores of rupees in Malkangiri where the “ grass” is growing in forest-covered inaccessible areas. Both the cultivation and smuggling of ganja in the district enjoy the patronage of Maoist ultras who use the income from the trade to fund their violent activities.

The Odisha government is now using satellite imagery to locate areas of ganja cultivation in Malkangiri and some other districts of the state known for illegal cannabis farming.