Authorities seized 114 kg of marijuana, cash and mobile phones, worth a total of Rs 50 lakh.

Hyderabad: THE Hyderabad Counter Narcotics Wing (HNEW) and local police on Friday busted an interstate drug racket and arrested seven people, including five suppliers and two transporters, in Kacheguda.

Authorities seized 114 kg of marijuana, cash and mobile phones, worth a total of Rs 50 lakh.

The arrested drug suppliers are B Govind, A Prakash Kumar, M Mohan Rao, RD Hari Prasad and K Ramana. The drug transporters are L Gangadhar and Y Gangadhar. All of them belong to Anakapalli district of Andhra Pradesh.

According to police, the suspects are friends and belong to the same neighborhood. Prakash and Mohan Rao, who know that Govind has contacts with marijuana cultivators in the Chitrakonda forest area on the Andhra-Odisha border, offered good commissions and purchased marijuana in large quantities from the cultivators .

“As per the demand, Govind purchased marijuana from the cultivators and supplied it to Prakash and Mohan. He purchased marijuana per kg for Rs 1,500 and sold it to suppliers for Rs 5,000 per kg,” said YVS Sudheendra, DCP (Task Force and HNEW).

In turn, Hari Prasad sold it for Rs 10,000 to Ramana, who hired L Gangadhar and Y Gangadhar to smuggle it to other drug peddlers in Hyderabad for a commission.

Here in Hyderabad, Balaji was selling Rs 25,000 per kg to known consumers.