Cops trail drug shipments to Mumbai as demand dips in city

Smuggling of narcotics to Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, from Hyderabad continues to take place, the city police said, citing a spike in demand for drugs in Mumbai and Pune and a dip in Hyderabad.

Officials estimate that they are able to intercept two to three consignments of every 10 that are routed to the western state. Despite cutting off the main transport routes, several consignments continue to end up in Mumbai, the police said. Officials said that the trail gets hard to follow once the consignments reach Mumbai. The head of

Hyderabad-Narcotics Enforcement Wing (HNEW), Chakravarthy Gummi, said, “Out of 10 shipments, two or three get intercepted here as they are taking different routes to reach their destination. The Maharashtra police might have apprehended more.”

Earlier this month, a four-member gang of interstate drug traffickers was caught by the West Zone Task Force team, who seized 225 grams of brown sugar and 28 kilogrammes of marijuana, worth `23.61 lakh. The gangs had set up a drug barter system to trade and sell narcotics in Mumbai and Hyderabad, the police said. Gummi said that the situation in Hyderabad is better as only small-time peddlers are being busted of late due to decreased demand in the city.

Excise department officials said that over 70 per cent of narcotics smuggling cases dealt by the Railway Police were transit interceptions of consignments. “A majority of the bulk cases we caught in the city and outskirts were all heading towards either Maharashtra or Rajasthan. Thanks to strict enforcement, the demand has come down in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. However, due to demand in other cities like Mumbai and Pune, smugglers have altered their routes to set up businesses there,” an official said.

An official with the police task force said that many leads to Mumbai run cold as smugglers have devised methods to cover their tracks within the city. “We do inform the local police there for assistance, but we tend to lose track of the trail we follow. Though not with every case, it happens often,” the official said.

● OFFICIALS ESTIMATE that they are able to intercept two to three consignments of every 10 that are routed to the western state. Despite cutting off the main transport routes, several consignments continue to end up in Mumbai.