Six held with 800 kilos of marijuana in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: The Shamshabad Police Special Operations Team along with the Miyapur police busted a drug peddling racket operating between Odisha and Maharashtra and arrested six persons here on Friday. Police seized 800 kilos of marijuana, a car and a truck, altogether worth Rs.1.80 crore.
The arrested persons were Ashok Kule, Amol Athawale, Rahul Kumar Singh, Vilash Jagannath Phachore, Firoz Momin and Sudam Ghotekar, all residents of Maharashtra and Odisha. Two suspects, Vikas Jadhav, the main receiver and Subhash Kumar, the supplier, were absconding.
According to the police, the gang was smuggling drugs from Koraput in the agency area of Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtra via Hyderabad for easy money. Rahul and Vilash were drivers transporting the drug with the assistance of Ashok and Amol to various places.
Subhash also started cultivating marijuana in the agency area and Vikas monitored the illegal business by talking to supply sources and also sent the load to customers in Maharashtra. Ashok, Amol and Rahul transported the material from Visakhapatnam or Odisha agency areas to Maharashtra besides assisting Vikas Jadhav in selling the drug.
Police said that a week ago, Subhash contacted Vikas and offered to sell 800 kg of marijuana, which they bought at Rs.3,000 a kilo and were planning to sell each kg between Rs.20,000 to Rs.30,000.
“Since there is strict surveillance in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on drug peddling, they planned to transport the drug from Koraput agency area to Maharashtra,” said an official.
From Koraput, they loaded the vehicle with the drugs which were concealed beneath a load of ginger.
“The gang left for Nashik in Maharashtra via Hyderabad with an escort vehicle. Due to vehicle checking in the State, they decided to avoid toll plaza routes and pass through Hyderabad by avoiding police checking on the city outskirts,” the official said.
Based on a tip-off, the police team intercepted the truck loaded with marijuana at Miyapur Crosroad toll gate and nabbed the suspects one after the other. Efforts are on to nab the absconding suspects.
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