Hyderabad: Two inter-state drug trafficking gangs busted, 8 held

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police have busted two inter-state drug trafficking gangs with arrest of eight persons, all with links to Mumbai, in three separate cases. and seized 244 grams of MDMA and 110 kg of ganja.

The sleuths of Hyderabad Narcotic Enforcement Wing (H-NEW), along with Gopalapuram police arrested a drug supplier, a drug transporter, and two peddlers. They seized 204 grams of MDMA, four mobile phones and a four-wheeler all valued at Rs 20 lakh.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand told reporters that the drug supplier, transporter and two peddlers are all from Mumbai.

Jatin Bhalchandra Bhalerao, Javed Shamshair Ali Siddique, Junaid Shaik Shamshuddin, and Vikas Mohan Kodmur were arrested during the investigation into separate cases registered earlier in which three accused were arrested.

Jathin was procuring cocaine from Emmanul Osondu, a Nigerian who was arrested by Hyderabad police earlier for drug peddling.

The police also found Sana Khan, an IT employee and a resident of Kondapur, consuming and selling MDMA in Hyderabad. She was arrested earlier.

According to police, she used to travel to Mumbai frequently and buy drugs from Jatin. She used to buy 1 gram of MDMA for about Rs 3,000 in Mumbai and sold it for about Rs 7,000 in Hyderabad.

Police had seized 15 grams of MDMA from her. During the investigation, police found 40 to 50 consumers in Hyderabad and 70 consumers in Mumbai.

The latest arrests were also made during the course of investigation into another case in which Harsh Mahajan, a resident of Kondapur was arrested for drug peddling. Eleven grams of MDMA was seized from him.

The Hyderabad police have shared with Mumbai Police the information regarding the drug racket obtained during investigations.

"There is an increase in the flow of narcotics from Mumbai and we will conduct joint operations with the Mumbai Police to prevent the supply of drugs to Hyderabad and Telangana," said the Commissioner.

In another case, police arrested three inter-state ganja smugglers and seized 110 kg ganja, Rs.1.5 lakh cash, a car and four cell phones all worth Rs 36 lakh.

The Police Commissioner said that this is the case of organized procurement, possession and interstate transportation of ganja from Araku in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh to Mumbra in Maharashtra.

The arrested Bilkis Mohd Suleman Shaikh, Aliasgar Saffuddin Rampurawala, and Murtuza Shaikh are all from Maharashtra. Srinivas of Araku, Abdul and Hasina of Maharashtra are absconding.

According to police, Bilkis and her husband Aliasgar are habitual ganja sellers in their locality. They had come into contact with ganja cultivator Srinivas through Murtuza Shaikh, a native of Zaheerabad.

They had taken Abdul, a car driver, and his wife Hasina to Araku to procure 110 kg ganja and the drug was concealed beneath rear seat. The accused were arrested in Hyderabad when they were on their way to Maharashtra. Murtuza was trying to take 20 kg of ganja to Zaheerabad in a bus from Hyderabad.

In the third case, H-NEW and the Charminar police also arrested Mehraj Kazi, a resident of Mumbai, and seized 40 grams MDMA, a phone and other items worth Rs 4 lakh.

During the last one year, H-NEW registered 104 narcotics related cases and arrested 212 peddlers. Police seized 12 types of drugs worth Rs 6.3 crores. As many as 1,076 consumers were also caught.