Hyderabad, July 27 (IANS) A rave party was busted by the Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department in Hyderabad, with nine people arrested and drugs seized, officials said.

The Task Force of the department raided a service apartment in Kondapur in the IT hub on Saturday night and nabbed nine people who were allegedly found consuming drugs.

Police seized 2.08 kg of cannabis (Ganja), 50 grams of OG Kush, a variety of cannabis, 11.57 grams of psychedelic mushrooms (magic mushrooms), 1.91 grams of charas, and 4 LSD blots.

The organisers of the rave party hailed from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and they allegedly used fake IDs to organise the party discreetly at S.V. Nilayam, a service apartment at Kondapur, police said.

The accused who have been arrested are Rahul, Unnati Emmanuela alias Praveen, Ashok Naidu, Sammela Sai Krishna, Nagella Leela Manikantha, Hilton Joseph, Yashwanth Sridutta, Thota Kumaraswamy and Nandam Sumanth Teja. They are all natives of Andhra Pradesh. Two others, Shrinivas Choudhary and Akhil, were absconding.

Excise police said Rahul was procuring the drugs through the dark web and was supplying them to others through his associate Praveen.

According to officials, the rave party was organised by Vasu and Shivam Rayudu, both residents of Vijayawada. They are suspected of having organised other rave parties in the past, too.

The police also seized six luxury cars from the accused.

The Excise Police registered a case against the accused and launched a hunt for the two absconding suspects. The accused were handed over to the Serlingampally Excise Police for further investigation.

The police were investigating suspected links of the arrested men with rave parties held in the past. The investigators were also looking into the financial transactions of the accused.

This is the latest in a series of drug rackets busted in and around Hyderabad. On July 9, the newly created Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE) busted a drug supply network operating from a restaurant in Kompally and arrested six accused.

Restaurant owner, Surya Annamaneni, was arrested for drug peddling along with five businessmen involved in running restaurants, hotels, or pubs in the city.

Two senior police officials were also later arrested on charges of drug peddling and consuming drugs. Nineteen accused, including techies, doctors, upscale pub-owners and businessmen, were found linked to the network.

–IANS

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