Representative image showing a police officer.
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Hyderabad: Hyderabad police apprehended two interstate drug peddlers who were procuring hashish oil from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and using Hyderabad as a transit route to transport and sell it in the Bengaluru market.
The police recovered around 13.5 kg of hashish oil from the peddlers. The production of 13.5 kg of hashish oil requires around 560 kg of ganja. In the grey market, one kilogram of Ganja fetches a value of Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000. People usually smoke hashish oil in a pipe or water pipe, or use a special tool or vaporiser pen to "dabbe" it.
In a coordinated operation, the sleuths of the Special Operations Team (SOT), LB Nagar, along with the Hayath Nagar police, have apprehended Vanchurbha Konda Babu, 30, and Vanchurbha Balakrishna, 20, both belonging to the same family from Visakhapatnam.
Rachakonda commissioner of police, G Sudheer Babu, said that Konda Babu and Balakrishna are cousins and earn their livelihood by attending agriculture work. Both indulged in this illicit drug trade to earn easy money.
During routine visits to the nearby cattle market in Annavaram, Alluri Seetharama Raju District, Konda Babu befriended an individual who introduced him to the illicit drug trade with the promise of making huge money. Konda Babu and his cousin Balakrishna, previously arrested by the Vizag Police in an NDPS case, decided to join the illegal trade.
The duo procured hash oil at a cheap rate and were selling it to a receiver in Bengaluru for a significant profit, which was 10 times the purchase price.
Recently, the receiver from Bengaluru placed an order for 14 KG of hash oil. Accordingly, on August 10, Konda Babu and Balakrishna procured the hash oil at Chaduru Mamidi Kondalu, located 15 kilometres from their village in Visakhapatnam distrrict, and came to the outskirts of Hyderabad.
On August 11, while they were waiting for the receiver at a hotel in Peddamberpet village in the nearby ORR, the SOT team and Hayath Nagar Police caught them and seized 13.5 KG of hashish oil.
The main receiver from Bangalore gave a slip and is absconding. “It is learnt that approximately 35 to 40 KG of ganja is used for making 1 KG of hashish oil, thus the total 13.5 KG of hashish oil consumed is approximately 560 KG of ganja. As per the Ganja market rate, hashish oil costs about Rs 14 crore,” said a SOT member.