31 kg ganja seized, three peddlers held

31 kg ganja seized, three peddlers held

A gang of three inter-State drug peddlers were arrested during a raid at Murgi Chowk, in Hussainialam, on Tuesday.

The police seized 30.70 kilograms of dry ganja worth approximately ₹11.30 lakh from them.

The accused were identified as Mohammed Yasin, 42, a barber from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, currently residing at Murgi Chowk; Gopal Khara, 19, a student from Koraput, Odisha; and Uttam Tamel, 19, a worker at a kirana shop, also from Koraput.

Acting on a tip-off, officials from the South-East Task Force team of the Commissioner’s Task Force and Hussainialam police raided a house near Silky Ice Cream in Murgi Chowk on Monday.

Investigations revealed that Mohammed Yasin was earlier arrested in January 2023 by Vishakhapatnam-IV town police while transporting ganja and was sent to judicial custody at the Central Prison, Vishakhapatnam.

After his release in 2024, Yasin relocated to Hyderabad and took a saloon on lease. However, finding the income insufficient, he resumed drug peddling in Mangalhat area. According to the police, Yasin travelled to Odisha a few days ago, where he procured around 30 kilograms of ganja from a supplier named Vicky, a resident of Pukali, Odisha. He returned to Hyderabad with Gopal and Uttam and stored the contraband at his rented house, intending to sell it to a contact named Kishan from Dhoolpet.

The supplier, Vicky, and the intended receiver, Kishan, remain at large and efforts are underway to trace them. A case was booked and investigations are underway.