Hyderabad: The city police arrested five inter-state drug peddlers and seized 12 kg of ganja from them on Friday. An auto-rickshaw and five cell phones were also seized from their possession.
Based on credible information, the sleuths of the commissioner's task force, north zone, along with the Afzalgunj police arrested the five men from the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Stand (MGBS) here while they were transporting ganja from Chitrakonda in Odisha to Bidar in Karnataka via Hyderabad.
The five have been identified as Jayaram Galari (19) of Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district, Odisha and Ankush Vinayak Rathod (30), Dattatri (30), Maruthi Raghunath Rathod (41), and Lambadi Ramu (36) of Vallepur in Bidar district, Karnataka. The main accused, Jaya Muduli, from Odisha is absconding, the police said.
The gang was procuring ganja at Rs. 5,000 per kg in Odisha and the same was being sold at Rs. 10,000 per kg in Karnataka. The accused persons, along with the seized materials, were handed over to the SHO Afzalgunj police for further investigation.
A case was registered under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.