Award-winning Keralam farmer who used his banana farming as cover for smuggling drugs arrested

KOCHI The Ernakulam Rural police have arrested an award-winning 31-year-old farmer suspected to be running a drug network under the cover of his agriculture ventures. Dhanesh S. Nair, aka Dani, of Haripad, Alappuzha district was arrested with 803 grams of suspected hashish oil and 8 grams of suspected MDMA, the police said on Monday (November 9, 2026). The investigating team zeroed in on the accused as part of the probe into the recent arrest of Harikrishnan K.S., 32, of Palluruthy, Kochi with 185 gram of suspected MDMA from a lodge in Aluva.

The accused, who lives near Nanjanagudu, Mysuru, was nabbed by a special investigation team, led by District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) K.S. Sudarshan when he landed in Angamaly. The police suspect he was engaged in drug peddling under the cover of banana cultivation in Nanjanagudu. Govt.

award He had reportedly pursued a higher education programme in Agribusiness in Germany between 2015 and 2018. He later returned to Keralam during the floods in 2018 and ventured into farming.