Hyderabad: In a major drug haul, officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted two women from Uganda and Zambia at Hyderabad's RGI Airport in two separate cases and recovered about 12 kilos of heroin worth '78 crore from their check-in baggage.
The officials intercepted the two women passengers based on specific intelligence at the RGIA Hyderabad and recovered about 12 kilos of narcotics substance, which later tested positive for heroin.
In the first case, on Saturday, the officers of DRI intercepted the Ugandan woman passenger when she came to RGI Airport to collect her missing baggage. “She had come to Hyderabad from Zimbabwe via Johannesburg and Doha a few days before. The baggage was examined and found to have concealment in the sides,” DRI officials revealed.
Further, on Sunday morning, the officials intercepted a Zambian passenger, identified as Makumba Carol, who flew from Zambia via Johannesburg and Doha. A detailed examination of her baggage resulted in recovery of off-white powder, later tested positive for heroin, from beneath the pipe rolls which was brought in the baggage.
The drugs were seized from the passengers and they were placed under arrest under the provisions of NDPS Act, 1985. “Heroin, an opioid derivative, is a highly addictive drug. People either inject, snort, or smoke this substance. Those who regularly use heroin often develop a tolerance, which means they need higher and/or more frequent doses of the drug to get the desired effects,” explained the officials.
While Hyderabad has more demand for marijuana, ‘posh’ drugs like cocaine and heroin are more in circulation in Gachibowli and Madhapur of Cyberabad, said the city police officials. Ganja was not produced in the state, but was being smuggled from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, they added.
In 2020, the Hyderabad city police officials arrested 213 individuals, including a foreign national, who were found peddling, smuggling and selling narcotics in the city. A total of 851 kilos of ganja, 40 grams of charas and 6 grams of cocaine along with 8 grams of MDMA was caught by the city police in Hyderabad last year, as per the annual report.
There is a high demand for ganja in Hyderabad, whereas areas on the outskirts in Cyberabad have consumers of cocaine, LSD and other costly drugs, according to P. Radhakrishna Rao, DCP of Task Force, Hyderabad police.
“We have so far booked about 30-40 cases of ganja in the city this year. Expensive drugs have buyers from areas like Gachibowli and Madhapur as the market is growing there. There has been a continuous crackdown on ganja trade in Hyderabad and all of it is being brought from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha through small-time peddlers. With the lockdown, bulk smuggling has gone down and the drugs have been coming in small quantities since last year,” said the official.
Meanwhile, excise officials said the first quarter of 2021 before the second wave saw a spike in hashish oil cases in the city as well. “The smugglers are transporting hashish oil from Vizag, which is easier to go undetected and multiplies the high. One drop of marijuana oil on a cigarette is enough to cause hours of narcotic effects on a person,” officials shared, adding that they had caught men smuggling the same in honey bottles as they look similar.
