Hyderabad: In a major revelation, it has been established that while marijuana supply into the city is being channeled from eastern routes like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, narcotics like MDMA, cocaine and LSD are being smuggled in from the western parts like Goa and Mumbai. Several cases have been booked in the last few months indicating that after a dry two-year spell, the racket is flourishing in Hyderabad. “This is even as we have increased our vigilance,” an official from the city police said.
“The issue is, while we keep tabs and have informants to tip us off on habitual offenders and routine methods, many students and others from outside the drug trade have started smuggling. They consume and sell it to their close circle, making it difficult for investigators to find a pattern,” he said.
In a recent bust, the narcotics wing of city police caught Osigwe Chukwuemeka James(Alamanjo Nmasichukwu), the 37-year-old Nigerian peddler who smuggles the substances from Goa. Most of his clients in the city are below 40 years in age and include students, software engineers and businessmen.
On August 26, Cyberabad police caught a 38-year-old man with 13 grams of cocaine, which he procured from a Nigerian seller in Goa. On July 12, several students, including from premier colleges and universities, were caught consuming narcotics following the arrest of four drug peddlers, who smuggled MDMA from Bangalore. In another case, four Nigerians were caught using social media applications to smuggle and sell methamphetamine and cocaine from Bangalore.
An official from the Anti-Narcotic Cell, Goa police, who nabbed Prudhvi Penmathsa, in Miyapur with 740 grams of hashish oil in Goa’s Porvorim in July, said that the bulk of smuggling is being done in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
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