Four engineering college students in the city have been arrested for smuggling and selling marijuana (ganja) to students from schools and colleges in the Virugambakkam area.

After the Prohibition Enforcement Wing from T Nagar raided a house in Kumaran Colony in Vadapalani, the team found several sachets of marijuana and seized nearly 5 kgs of the drug from their possession. "The accused -- Dharma Teja, 21, of Krishna district, V Jagadeesan, 21, Prakasam district, V Seetharaman, 21, of Vijayawada and S Gowtham, 23, -- would sell the contraband to youngsters and teenagers in city schools and colleges," the police said, as per a report by a news agency. Further investigation also revealed that the students, who all hail from Andhra Pradesh, smuggled the contraband from the state to peddle them in Chennai.

The Prohibition Enforcement Wing handed over the accused men to the Virugambakkam police following preliminary investigation. Less than a month ago, the Ramanathapuram district police busted a network of marijuana smugglers who were smuggling the contraband purchased from Andhra Pradesh to Sri Lanka via Rameswaram. 19 men were arrested and 420 kgs of ganga and Rs 29.5 lakh in cash were seized in a fortnight-long operation.