Crackdown on drugs continues in Hyderabad

Police arrest a five-member interstate gang operating from Odisha, seize 15 kg marijuana

Hyderabad: The intense crackdown on drug smugglers and peddlers in the city is still on, with the Hyderabad Task Force along with the Afzalgunj police on Friday nabbing a five-member interstate drug peddling gang operating from Odisha and Karnataka at the MGBS.

Police seized 15 kilos of marijuana, an auto-rickshaw and five mobile phones from them.

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According to police, the arrested persons were identified as Jayaram Galari (19), a transporting agent from Odisha, A Vinayak Rathod (30) from Bidar, Dattatri (30), from Karnataka, M Raghunath Rathod (41) from Bidar and L Ramu (36), also from Karnataka. One suspect, Jaya Muduli from Odisha, was absconding.

Police said the gang was smuggling marijuana from Chitrakonda, Malkangiri district in Odisha to Bidar in Karnataka via Hyderabad using private transport vehicles. They sold the same to dealers and known customers at higher rates.

The Hyderabad Task Force Police said Jayaram was a close associate of the main suspect Jaya Muduli and as per his instructions, he was transporting marijuana from Chitrakonda and delivering it to agents at various destination points, all this on a commission basis. Vinayak Rathod earlier worked in a sugarcane field while his accomplices Dattatri, Raghunath Rathod and Ramu were known to each other and belonged to the same village.

Vinayak Rathod had taken up drug peddling for easy money and got acquainted with Jaya Muduli, from whom he started purchasing drugs, officials said.

“He bought each kg of marijuana for Rs 5,000 directly from peddlers in Bidar and sold the same for Rs 10,000. He targeted habitual consumers in and around Bidar. The drug was also transported in private vehicles to Bidar via Hyderabad,” police said.

Recently, Vinayak Rathod ordered 12 kg of marijuana from Jaya Muduli and paid him money online. As per the plan, the drug was to be brought to the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station here, from where Vinayak Rathod and his accomplices were to transport it to Bidar. As per the deal, Jayaram Galari brought the marijuana to MGBS and was waiting at the auto-stand to deliver the material when the police caught them. The arrested persons along with the seized material were handed over to the Afzalgunj police for further action.