Hyderabad: Rachakonda police bust drug smuggling racket, two held

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police on Monday arrested two persons involved in smuggling pseudoephedrine, a narcotic substance here. The police seized 8.5 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, cash of Rs 4.2 lakh, passport, laptop and other articles from them.

Acting on a tip off, the team arrested Mohammed Kasim (31) and Rasuldeen (39) from Tamilnadu while three of their associates including Fareed and Faisal from Maharashtra and Raheem from Tamilnadu are absconding.

Rachakonda Commissioner of Police, Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat, informed that the gang was operating from Tamilnadu and using Pune and Hyderabad as air cargo route to smuggle the drug to Australia and New Zealand.

"The gang members booked parcels at international courier services located at Pune and Hyderabad. They concealed the drug in cloth boxes, bangle boxes, baby wear gift packs etc., and furnished forged address proofs of locals from the two cities. On receiving information about the gang staying in Nacharam and planning to send a parcel to Australia and New Zealand, a raid was conducted and two of the gang members were nabbed," Mahesh Bhagwat, said the gang had sent 15 consignments containing around 70 kilograms of pseudoephedrine to foreign countries. The case was detected by the Rachakonda Special Operations (Malkajgiri) Team.