Drug smuggling: Teen pusher used to visit Goa

Hyderabad: Eighteen-year-old Akshay Kannoli, who was caught in Friday’s drug bust, could be the youngest interstate drug peddler arrested by the police so far. An Intermediate student at a private college, Akshay used to visit Goa once a month to meet his drug peddler named Mark, a French national and attend psychedelic parties on Anjuna beach.

After he was arrested by the Commissioner’s Task Force Akshay confessed to the police that the psychedelic parties were conducted every Tuesday, especially for foreign nationals. He had easy access to the parties and drug circles. He said he used to bring LSD to Hyderabad from Goa every month, and sold it to his rich customers at parties held at posh hotels and farm houses in the city. He said he sold LSD to the participants at the famous American DJ Goa Gil’s party this year at Leonia Resort in Shamirpet.

The son of a retired Army engineer, Akshay was on the verge of separation from his family due to his drug abuse, police said. His friend Shishir Chauhan, 21, also visited Goa with him to attend psychedelic parties.

Akshay’s family, who is originally from the Wyanad district of Kerala, settled in Hyderabad after his father’s retirement. “While his father Suresh Kumar Kannoli was in the Army, his family was moving to different parts of the country. After they settled here, while studying in Class X, Akshay tried marijuana with friends. The 'weed experience' made him try other drugs,” said a police official, who interrogated Akshay.

For the first time, Akshay along with his friends went to Goa in November 2014. “He tried LSD once then. Later, in January 2015, he went back to Goa again and tried it once more. Later, he secured access to drug peddlers. From then onwards he started bringing LSD to Hyderabad after purchasing it from the French national and sell it for a higher price to his friends,” said a probe official.

Akshay’s parents had not realised their son had become a drug peddler, though they had a doubt that he was up to some mischief. “His parents were helpless. Either, they knew and could not stop him or they did not know how bad the situation was,” said a probe official.

The second accused Shishir Chauhan’s father is a retired Central government employee and mother a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher. Both Akshay and Shishir and three of their friends were remanded to judicial custody by a court.