800 kg ganja seized, 2 held, 2 absconding

Hyderabad: In yet another major seizure of Ganja, Two members of an interstate ganja smuggling gang were arrested by the Cyberabad Special Operations Team on Sunday. The police have seized 800 kilograms of ganja, a truck and two mobile phones all valued at Rs. 2 crores from the accused. The arrested persons are identified as Khushi Mohammed (34) driver, a native of Uttar Pradesh and Sonu Singh (23) lorry cleaner from same state. Those absconding are Sikhander, of UP, Somu alias Bhagawan of Orissa and Bijender Singh of UP.

M Stephen Raveendra, Cyberabad Commissioner of Police informed that the gang was caught at ORR Pedda Golconda crossroads when they were transporting the contraband after concealing it in a truck laden with cotton seed waste consignment.

"Sikhander and Bijendra Singh placed an order for the ganja with Somu a few days ago. To take delivery of the consignment Khushi and Sonu went to Rajahmundry and loaded in the truck and were bound for Bulandarshahar when they were caught," said the Cyberabad CP.

The consignment was to be resold to drug peddlers in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh by the gang.

"Ganja was purchased in Rajahmundry for Rs. 3,000 a kilogram and it was to be sold for Rs. 20,000 a kilogram later," the police said.

Earlier in the day, a businessman from Hyderabad was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau for allegedly operating an internet pharmacy and diverting and supplying psychotropic medicines for recreational use to the United States and other countries. The officials have seized Rs. 3.71 crore in cash, mobile phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets from the house of a businessman after a raid.

The businessman, whom the NCB did not identify, registered a company J R Infinity Private Limited located in Domalguda in the Hyderabad.

Based on the information, the house and office premises of the kingpin of the internet pharmacy group located in Hyderabad city were searched by Hyderabad Sub Zone of NCB.

Investigations into the racket revealed that the employees of JR Infinity contacted customers in the USA and other countries over email and VoIP calls and offered various pharma drugs including those covered under NDPS Act for recreational use to them. When customers agreed upon the product and price, the employees collected the details of the customers like name, shipping address, email id etc. and shared the payment links with them.

Based on the preference of the customer, multiple payment methods were offered by JR infinity like account transfer, credit card, Paypal, Bitcoins etc. On confirmation of the payment by the customer, the company used to illicitly divert and dispatch pharma drugs to the customers in the USA and other countries.

The probe so far has revealed that the prime suspect is an important player in an international pharma drug trafficking network. In the last two years, he has carried out more than one thousand illicit diversions and shipments of drugs from India to the USA. The psychotropic tablets that were trafficked by the accused to his international customers are Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Alprazolam, Diazepam, Lorazepam, Clonazepam, Zolpidem, Tramadol etc.