Major drug bust in Hyderabad - Times of India

HYDERABAD: Customs officials and police seized a huge quantity of drug substances in separate incidents on Saturday and arrested six persons.

In the first incident, customs officials on Saturday seized 10 kg 'Methaqualone', a sedative, from two Chennai-based persons while they were about to board a Kuala Lumpur-bound flight at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Shamshabad.

The two were identified as Rakhi McGuinness, 28, and Abhilash Vijayan, 30, from Chennai. The customs officials seized 10 kg of the drug substance, worth around Rs 3 crore, from their baggage.

"The incident came to light when RGIA staff were scanning the luggage late on Friday night (1 am) and found some suspicious substance packed in Rakhi McGuiness' bags. They seized the bags and alerted our staff. We took him into custody. On interrogation, he revealed that another person, Abhilash Vijayan, was also making a bid to go Kuala Lumpur with the contraband," assistant commissioner of customs, Air Intelligence Unit, RGIA, Vinayak Bhat told STOI.

"We immediately alerted the airport staff to take Abhilash into custody. Within no time, the staff caught him and seized his baggage. When we checked his luggage, we found five-kg of the contraband, Methaqualone," he said.

Both were making a bid to fly to Kuala Lumpur and sell the drug substance there at a higher price, he added.

"For the first time, we seized the drug substance in such huge quantity at the Shamshabad airport. We booked a case against the duo under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 and shifted them to the Chanchalguda central jail," the official said.

Meanwhile, the Kukatpally police on Friday arrested four persons and seized 550 grams of 'Alprazolam', a sedative. The seized drug could be worth Rs 18 lakhs in the international market.

Police arrested T Vijay Kumar, 23 a call centre employee, S Srinivas Rao, 46, a businessman, M Rajawardhan Reddy, 20, a B Tech second year student of Mallareddy Engineering College, Dundigal and V Chaitanya Kumar, a private employee. However, the main accused, Vamshi, who is also a B Tech student of Mallareddy college, was absconding.

"Based on reliable information, we took four persons, who were near the Kukatpally bus stand, into custody and interrogated them. On interrogation, they confessed that they were selling drugs to earn easy money. They used to procure the substance from Vamshi and sell it to customers, mostly students," Kukatpally inspector K Srinivasa Rao said.

The Kukatpally police produced them in court, which remanded them in judicial custody. Later, they were sent to the Cherlapalli central jail.