Prohibition and Excise Department cracks down on illegal ganja sales in Hyderabad

High profit margins in cannabis are attracting small-time criminals in Hyderabad’s Mangaru Basthi and Fatehnagar. Smuggling ganja from Maharashtra and Karnataka, families target daily wage workers and auto drivers. Crackdowns by the Prohibition and Excise Department aim to curb the trade.

Hyderabad: Huge profit margins in the cannabis business are luring small-time seasoned criminals into the illicit trade.

With the anti-narcotics teams swooping on drug traffickers in Dhoolpet and regular customers ready to shell out more money for cannabis, a few families in the Mangaru Basthi at Nampally and Fatehnagar at Sanathnagar are trying to cash upon the demand for cannabis and jumped into the illicit business.

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The families who have a criminal history have begun to sell ganja after smuggling it in trains and buses from Nanded and Bidar districts in adjoining Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Prohibition and Excise Department special teams, who got wind of the new ganja sale points, have started a crackdown. “In last couple of months, 20 cases were booked involving around 35 persons in Mangaru Basthi, while in Fatehnagar, about 10 cases were booked against 14 persons,” said an official of the Prohibition and Excise department.

Mangaru Basthi of Mallepally is known for small pocket picking and property snatching gangs comprising of families or close relatives operating from the area for decades. They are said to be eyeing the ganja business, anticipating good profits. “It’s easy money that is attracting them. We have launched a crackdown and will eradicate the menace at the earliest,” said the official.

The ganja sellers target auto rickshaw drivers and daily wagers who frequent these areas to buy Nitravet tablets and injectable drugs. The ganja is packed in small packets and sold to the customers who frequent the place after midnight. A small packet of the ganja is sold for Rs 500 each.

In Dhoolpet area, once notorious for the sale of ganja, the business has come down. “In Dhoolpet, the sale of ganja has come down by 90 per cent. Only small quantities of ganja are brought and sold to known persons. By mid of the year, ganja trade will cease in Dhoolpet,” said the official.