800 kg ganja seized in Hyderabad, 6 arrested

Hyderabad: The special operations team, Shamshabad, and the Miyapur police seized 800 kg of ganja on Friday and arrested six drug peddlers. The drug was being transported from Koraput in Odisha to Nashik, Maharashtra, via Hyderabad.

On the morning of 21 January, the SOT, Shamshabad, team and the Miyapur police apprehended Ashok Khule (49), Amol Athawale (39), Rahul Kumar Singh (22), Vilash Jagannath Phachore (39), Firoz Momin (41), and Sudam Ghotekar (45).

They seized 800 kg of ganja, a car, cash Rs. 2,100, a DCM vehicle, and five mobile phones, all worth about Rs.1.80 crore.

Two others – Vikas Jadhav, the main receiver, and Subhash Kumar, the supplier – are absconding.

According to the police, about a week ago, Subhash contacted Vikas with an offer to sell 800 kg of dry ganja. The latter engaged Ashok, Amol, and Vilash to transport the drug. Further, as surveillance in both Telangana and AP has been tightened, Firoz and Sudam were also hired to assist in transporting the drug from the Koraput agency area to Maharashtra.

On 19 January, Ashok, Amol, Rahul, Vilash, Firoz, and Sudam went to Koraput agency area and parked the DCM vehicle in a remote place in the forest. The supplier, Subhash, took the vehicle and loaded 156 packets of ganja (5 kg each) into the vehicle and covered them with bags of ginger. Later, Subhash parked the DCM vehicle at the same place and Ashok, Amol, Rahul, Vilash, Firoz, and Sudam left the agency area with the drug in the early hours of 19 January.

On 21 January, on receipt of specific information, the joint team of SOT Shamshabad zone and the Miyapur police arrested Ashok and Amol who were escorting the DCM in a car at Miyapur crossroad tollgate. Based on their information, they caught the DCM vehicle loaded with dry ganja and arrested the other four men.

The gang revealed that they purchased the ganja for Rs. 3,000 per kg and sold it to customers for Rs. 20,000 per kg.