Hyderabad, June 4 (IANS) Telangana Police’s anti-drugs wing EAGLE Force has busted an international drug smuggling syndicate involved in trafficking hydroponic cannabis (OG weed) from Thailand to India with the arrest of 10 key accused, including kingpin Hemang Pramod Keluskar of Mumbai.

The accused belong to various states, with most of the key accused hailing from Mumbai.

The Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE) said on Thursday that the investigations following the arrest of three accused in April revealed that a total of 29 accused were arrested at various places by different agencies. Eleven other accused are absconding.

The kingpin’s family had a long history of smuggling various goods between India and Arab countries. Leveraging their experience and existing network, they ventured into drug trafficking in mid-2023, the EAGLE said.

For their operations, the kingpin family chose Thailand, where premium-quality hydroponic cannabis is cultivated extensively and is available at comparatively lower prices than in the global market.

They initially entered into a partnership with a club in Thailand, where they identified Indian customers who were habitual consumers of hydroponic cannabis. Through these contacts, they also identified local drug suppliers and peddlers.

The investigations revealed that in the middle of 2023, Keluskar and his younger brother Sudhanshu Pramod Keluskar entered into the club business in Pattaya, Thailand, along with local Thai partners under the name of Jalwa Club, where they identified that most customers visiting the club were habitual consumers of OG. Many top film personalities frequently visit this club in Thailand.

Police said Keluskar and another accused, Suraj Pal, had visited the Kokapet area in Hyderabad in early April and showed interest in buying prime property to open a Jalwa Club similar to the one in Thailand.

To facilitate the smuggling operation, the key accused recruited mule carriers to transport hydroponic cannabis from Thailand to India. The carriers travelled through different international airports in India, particularly those where baggage screening was perceived to be less stringent. The syndicate was also aware that hydroponic cannabis could be difficult to detect through conventional airport screening systems.

As part of their strategy, the kingpins established a firm in association with international drug suppliers and peddlers for the cultivation and procurement of hydroponic cannabis from local cultivators under the guise of medical and commercial use, taking advantage of Thailand’s policies encouraging cannabis related businesses for economic growth. Further, they leased a cannabis cultivation chamber with a capacity to cultivate 144 cannabis plants per cultivation cycle, with up to four cultivation cycles annually, for a period of five years.

Once the contraband reached India, it was transported to Mumbai whenever the carriers arrived at airports other than Mumbai. Thereafter, the hydroponic cannabis was distributed to peddlers and consumers through an established network. All payments for the narcotic substance were received exclusively in cash. The proceeds generated from the sale of the contraband were subsequently routed back to Thailand through hawala channels and reinvested in the illegal drug trafficking operation.

Based on the statements of the accused persons, evidence collected during the investigation, and technical analysis, it was revealed that the syndicate had utilised approximately 300 carriers to transport hydroponic cannabis from Thailand to India. The investigation further revealed that the syndicate frequently changed the airports used by the carriers in order to evade detection by Customs authorities. The carriers were routed through various international airports, including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.

By regularly altering the arrival airports, the syndicate attempted to avoid attracting the attention of enforcement agencies and reduce the risk of interception by Customs officials.

On April 7, Sodha Mohsin Bahadurbahi, arriving from Bangkok with 13,200 grams of hydroponic ganja, was intercepted at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. His associate, Harshad Mansukhbhai Prajapati, escaped with a similar consignment. On a tip-off that Prajapti, along with another accused, Sandeep Vaswani alias Rahul Jain, would be travelling to Mumbai by bus with the contraband, the EAGLE team arrested the suspects in the early hours of April 8. A total of 20 packets containing hydroponic ganja weighing 12.739 kg were recovered from their possession. Both accused disclosed their involvement in a drug trafficking network operating between Bangkok, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, and named other associates who were absconding.

The Customs Department, Hyderabad, on April 8, arrested another accused, Dal Abdulbhai Sadrudinbhai, who was coordinating both the accused, Bahadurbhai and Prajapati. Sadrudinbhai is a native of Gujarat, and his role was to identify greedy youth in his locality, i.e., Amreli, Gujarat, to bring the contraband from Thailand to India.

The kingpin of the racket is Keluskar, who visited Thailand 17 times. His younger brother, who visited Thailand 27 times, is absconding.

The third accused, Rocky, an Indian residing in Pattaya, is absconding.

Sadrudinbhai was a clearing agent at Mundra Port, Gujarat. He has been associated with Pramod Bapu Keluskar, the father of Keluskar, in the scrap business for a long period. When the Keluskar brothers commenced their drug smuggling operations, he allegedly played a key role in supplying mule carriers for transporting narcotic substances from Thailand to India.

–IANS

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