Breaking: Hyderabad’s ‘Forest Alchemy’ event raided: 24 caught in midnight drug bust

Hyderabad: In a midnight swoop, the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB)  raided the ‘Forest Alchemy- 3 rd Edition’ event being held at ‘The Cave Bar and Lounge’ at Manikonda on Saturday night and nabbed 24 persons who had taken drugs.

Acting on specific information, a special team of the bureau led by its Director Sandeep Shandilya raided the posh bar. While the much publicized event began at 8 pm, the anti-drug authorities, who kept a close watch at the place, made an entry around midnight, taking the attendants by surprise.

 “We checked 55 persons  on the spot using portable drug detection kits and two dozen people including the DJ have tested positive for drug consumption,” Sandeep Shandilya told Telangana Today on phone.

Most of the people were found to have smoked or consumed ganja while four others including the DJ tested positive for ganja and cocaine. One person was found to have cosumed the MDMA drug.

The much-publicized event was held in the city on the weekend and for the first time DJ Sandeep Sharmar of ‘White Wizard’ alongside Foe‘Xan was performing. Despite the rain, a large number of people attended the event where Electronic Dance Music (EDM) and Psychedelic music was being played.

“We had an idea of what was going to happen. The teams were doing their homework for the last few days and at an appropriate time a raid was conducted. Investigation is still going on,” said the official.

The 24 consumers and the club management are taken into custody and the authorities are continuing the raid well past midnight.