Hyderabad Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) P. Viswa Prasad addressing a press meet in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: SIDDHANT THAKUR
The Hyderabad police arrested five drug offenders, including three inter-State suppliers in two separate operations. A total of 2.49 kilogram of ganja, 44 LSD blots, 250 gram of magic mushrooms, and other items worth over ₹1.4 crore were seized.
In the first case, Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) and Nallakunta police, arrested four individuals, including two inter-State suppliers – Harshvardan Shrivastava, a 30-year-old architecture graduate from Madhya Pradesh, and B. Srinivasa Rahul, a Chennai-based IT engineer turned peddler and two local peddlers – Abhishek, a software professional from Secunderabad, and Dhawal, an architect.
The police said Shrivastava sourced drugs from the darknet marketplace, Dread Market, using encrypted apps such as Signal and made payments via cryptocurrency and hawala while Rahul sourced OG via Snapchat and distributed it in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. The accused were found using courier services and virtual platforms to make deals and transport drugs while transactions were carried out through hawala and cryptocurrency channels.
Hyderabad Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) P. Viswa Prasad addressing the media regarding the drug bust of ₹1.4 crore in an operation by the Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) and Nallakunta police in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
SIDDHANT THAKUR
The seizure included 1.38 kilograms of hydroponic ganja (OG), 44 LSD blots, 250 grams of magic mushrooms, ₹10,640 in cash, six mobile phones, two two-wheelers among others, all valued at ₹1.4 crore.
In a separate operation on the same day, the Central Zone Task Force and Ramgopalpet police arrested an inter-State drug peddler, Sunil Bindhani, 29, a resident of Phulbani, Odisha, at Ranigunj X Road. Bindhani, who runs a fast-food centre in his native village, was found transporting 1.1 kilograms of ganja from Odisha to Hyderabad.
The police said he purchased the contraband from a local agent for about ₹5,000 and travelled to Secunderabad in a train.
Further investigations are underway in both the cases.
Published – April 29, 2025 06:54 pm IST
