Telangana cops on hot pursuit of drug trail

Hyderabad: Following the decision of the State Government to put down the drug menace with an iron hand, the police and excise sleuths have intensified raids at various places in the city.

In the Kukatpally area on Saturday, the police raided pan shops and seized gutka and ganja along with the paper rolls that are used for wrapping ganja. The paper used for ganja was destroyed and the pan shop owners were given counselling. Though cases have been booked against them, they were told that they were not arresting them, treating this as the first offence and warned them not to sell gutka and ganja again.

In another raid by the prohibition and excise sleuths at Medchal and Nagarkurnool seized 4.9 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore. Medchal Assistant Commissioner of Enforcement, Chandraiah, said the excise officials of the District Task Force (DTF) raided a place in Kukatpally and seized 5 grams of the drug. Upon questioning a cab driver Pawan and Prashant Reddy revealed that the drug was provided by one Kanna Reddy. The DTF sleuths arrested Kanna Reddy and conducted a raid in Ibrahimpatnam and seized 921 grams of the drugs. Probing further with the accused led the cops to the arrest of Ramakrishna Goud in Nagarkurnool. About 4 kgs of mephedrone was found in his car. However, the prime suspects S K Reddy and B Hanumanth Reddy were absconding, the police said. Special teams were formed to trace the suspects at large, call records and bank accounts would be verified. He said that drugs were meant to supply to the students and efforts are on to trace the persons acting as a source for the supply of narcotics, he added.