Hyderabad: Tattoo was code for procuring drugs from Goa

Hyderabad: Drug menace is gripping youngsters in the city. The recent death of an unemployed B Tech youth due to drug overdose is giving sleepless nights to the police as he was consuming more than three different drugs at a time.

The police said the youngster got in touch with one Prem Upadhayay, a habitual drug peddler who was arrested on Thursday along with three others by H-NEW and the Nallakunta police.

More shocking revelation, the police received was that Upadhayay was procuring drugs from one Lakshmipathi, who is allegedly believed to be son of a police officer. As soon as the police received information about Lakshmipathi, a team was rushed to Goa to trace him.

Preliminary investigation revealed that he is the kingpin in Goa and has more than 15 hideouts where he does drug business. However, in order to avoid the eyes of the police he adopted the modus operandi of selling drugs to those who have a specific tattoo inscribed on their bodies. An officer, on condition of anonymity, said, "If an addict wants to procure drugs from Lakshmipathi he or she has to inscribe the tattoo on the body which will be used as a means of entry into the hideouts of Lakshmipathi. From there on the consumer can purchase drugs. Thus, Upadhyay was doing illegal trade with the kingpin. The investigating revealed that Lakshmipathi is a native of Hyderabad and was arrested earlier twice by the city police in connection with the drugs case."

DS Chauhan, Additional Commissioner, Law & Order, said, "since the inception of H-NEW, many cases of drugs are being filed by us. In all cases we focused on both supplier and consumer in order to eradicate the menace from society.

We also found that in most detected by H-NEW, many engineering students are being arrested, besides IT professionals. Now, the main concern is engineering students are getting spoiled by drugs. When we investigated, we knew that the engineering students are soft targets of drug dealers. By using their network chain, the drug syndicate is targeting these students. Hence we have started campaigning in various colleges about disadvantages of drugs."