The mastermind of an interstate drug peddling racket has been taken into custody in a joint operation by Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch and Malkangiri police, a senior STF official said on Monday.
The fugitive kingpin of the racket, identified as Thyil Shyam Sunder, was nabbed from Saikrishna Nagar in Amberpet on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He was wanted in a narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance (NDPS) case dating back to 3 October, 2021 in Chitrakonda police station jurisdiction of Malkangiri district.
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A total of 1,051 kilograms of cannabis valued at around Rs one crore was seized in Chitrakonda police station area and a suspected drug peddler N Balu was arrested during October last year.
On intense interrogation, he had spilled the beans and had confided that Thyil Shyam Sunder was operating the racket from Andhra Pradesh. The arrested man Balu was acting as a conduit to smuggle out the banned substances to Andhra Pradesh, said officials.
Booked under relevant sections of NDPS act, Shyam Sundar was later remanded to judicial custody by a court in Malkangiri.
The cannabis routed through Odisha’s Malkangiri district by organized drug syndicates is much in demand in other States because its price is on the lower side. These banned substances are mostly being smuggled to southern and northern parts of the country including New Delhi.
While one kg of ganja is sold in black market in Odisha at Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000, in Delhi and bigger cities, the contraband’s price shoots up to Rs 20, 000 to Rs 30,000 per kg depending on demand and supply, added officials.