Drugs in the form of tablets and what look like toffees were to be supplied to a rave party
In a third major drug bust in Hyderabad, four people were arrested by the Cyberabad police on Monday and drugs worth Rs 10 lakh were seized from them.
This catch of drugs - in the form of tablets and what look like toffees - was to be supplied to a rave party that was to be organised in Goa on Independence Day.
"We have recovered large quantity of drugs including cocaine, amphetamine pills, MDMA, LSD and Ganja. He is having a number of customers from Hyderabad, even some women customers are also there," Cyberabad Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said.
The commissioner added that those arrested were major suppliers in Goa and Telangana.
Of the four people arrested, two are engineering dropouts who turned full-time drug peddlers. One of them is said to be a friend of the alleged kingpin of Hyderabad's massive drug racket Calvin Mascarenhas, who was arrested earlier by the excise department of Telangana. Navyanth reportedly fled to Goa after Calvin's arrest and was operating from there.
Gabriel, a Nigerian national who came to India as a Nizam College student in 2014, was also arrested on Monday. He had earlier been arrested in March for possessing cocaine.
The tip-off had come during police interrogation of five Nigerians and a young woman from Vijayawada who were arrested 10 days ago. Police say the list of contacts who are suspected to be users has top names from several fields. The blood and hair samples of at least six suspected drug users have been sent for testing.
"Basically ours target is drug peddlers. The customers - there may be many types of customers - we will try to help them to get rid of it through de-addiction counselling," Mr Bhagwat said.
Those arrested are said to be major suppliers of banned drugs to pubs, educational institutions and rave parties in Goa and Hyderabad, with links to Pune, Mumbai and Delhi too.