Ganja worth around Rs 2 crore, which was being smuggled from Andhra Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh via Telangana, was seized by the Cyberabad police on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday, May 8. Based on a tip-off, the sleuths of Special Operations Team (SOT), Shamshabad Zone, along with Shamshabad police, apprehended two interstate drug peddlers and seized 800 kg of ganja being transported by a truck.
The arrested have been identified as Khushi Mohammed, driver of the truck and Sonu Singh, the cleaner. Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said that both the arrested men are from Uttar Pradesh while three other accused, including one from Odisha were absconding.
“Sikinder, a resident of Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, who was to receive the contraband, Somu alias Bhagawan, a resident of Malkangiri of Odisha who is the supplier and Bijender Singh, of Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, who owns the truck are absconding,” he said. According to police, the accused have been illegally transporting ganja from an Odisha agency area to Bulandshahr of Uttar Pradesh via Hyderabad so as to earn easy money.
Khushi Mohammed has been procuring ganja from the local cultivators of Visakhapatnam and Odisha agency area and supplying it to Sikinder, who was then selling it to the needy customers belonging to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, police said.
About one week ago, Sikinder had given an order for 800 kg of dry ganja. The arrested truck driver, through his contacts, procured the required ganja from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. On the evening of May 6, the driver and cleaner started a cottonseed-loaded lorry from Vijayawada to Rajahmundry. After reaching Rajahmundry, the driver spoke to the truck owner over the phone. Later, an unknown person came to them and guided them to a remote place in the agency area near Rajahmundry, police said.
Some persons came there in two cars carrying ganja packets and loaded 32 bags of ganja containing 64 packets and loaded the same on the truck among cottonseed waste bags. The truck owner gave instructions over the phone to the driver on how to reach the main road. Later, they had left the agency area with a ganja loaded lorry in the early hours of May 7 for Bulandshahr via Hyderabad, police added.