Hyderabad, July 23 (IANS) Hyderabad Police have apprehended nine drug offenders and seized cocaine and ecstasy pills from their possession. Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) made the arrests in three separate cases.

While six persons have been arrested for peddling cocaine, three others have been apprehended for dealing in Meow-Meow (MD) drug.

The police seized a country-made pistol along with six live rounds, 286 grams of cocaine, 11 Ecstasy pills and 12 mobile phones, all worth Rs 85 lakh.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C. V. Anand told media persons that two inter-state drug transporters and a local peddler were arrested with 100 grams Meow-Meow (MD) drug, one country-made pistol, six live rounds, and empty bullet shells. Three mobile phones were also seized from them.

The inter-state drug transporters have been identified as Pawan Bhati alias Raja and Hemsingh Kachhawa alias Hemu, both residents of Rajasthan.

Jeetendara Panwar, also from Rajasthan but residing in Hyderabad, is the local peddler.

In another operation, H-NEW, along with Golconda Police, arrested four inter-state drug peddlers, one local peddler and consumers and seized 276 grams cocaine, eight mobile phones, all worth Rs 69 lakh.

Inter-state drug peddlers Mujaffar Wahid Shaikh, Vinod Kishanlal Shrivasthav, Chaitanya Vinayak Wagh and Mustak Khan are all from Maharashtra.

Prem, a software employee in Hyderabad, was helping them in selling drugs to customers. The consumers have been identified as Ravi Kumar Varma and Sachin, both businessmen.

In a joint operation with Bollarum Police, H-NEW arrested a cocaine peddler and seized 10 grams cocaine, 11 ecstasy pills weighing six grams and one mobile phone, all worth Rs 3.10 lakh.

The accused is identified as Harshavardhan, a software employee in Hyderabad.

According to police, Harshvardhan, who studied B.Tech and secured a software job in a reputed software company, started consuming drugs with friends after failure in love. Later, he became a peddler. He was procuring cocaine from Bangalore and selling it to needy customers in Hyderabad.

The Police Commissioner also stated that the process to deport two foreign nationals involved in drug trafficking has also been initiated.

Anand said the process has been initiated to prevent them from indulging in undesirable activities detrimental to national security.

The Nigerians have been identified as Aful Clement alias Aful David, aged 29 and Lazarus Chinwenmeri Favour, aged 19.

The investigations revealed that Aful Clement came to India on a business visa. In 2022, he was arrested by police in Chandigarh in a cheating case. This month, he came to Bangalore to supply drugs along with his friend Lazarus Chinwenmeri Favour, who came to India on a student visa. They came to Hyderabad and were moving under Tolichowki Police Station limits in a suspicious manner when they were apprehended.

–IANS

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