JOIN USThe East division police have busted a drug racket involving international and interstate peddlers who used dark web for the illegal trade.
They arrested 11 people in all, seizing drugs worth Rs 90 lakh, including 1,100 LSD strips, 450 grams MDMA, 250 grams of brown sugar, 500 ml weed oil, and 498 kg ganja. This year, the East division police booked 294 cases against 320 peddlers and consumers.
The Halasuru police arrested three people, Keval M Lohit, Mohammed Hifzulla alias MD and Aziz Niyaz. One person, Guru Prasad, is still at large. Lohit is a BCA graduate and Hifzulla a BCom dropout. Both ran event management firms.
Lohit began as a drug user and later became a peddler. He bought cocaine (Charlie), LSD strips (stamps), and MDMA tablets (pills) through dark web using bitcoins.
Hifzulla began work as an office assistant at a private firm and later sold its products as a salesperson, before getting into event management and starting his own firm Fusion Entertainment.
Lohit and Hifzulla had links to Nigerian and other African drug peddlers. They bought drugs from them and began selling them on dark web using bitcoins. Their main customers are party-going youngsters and college students.
Both used Niyaz and Prasad to deliver drugs to customers. Niyaz is a bike taxi driver with a fixed salary and Prasad works as a delivery boy who gets Rs 40 per delivery. The drug sellers paid them Rs 500 for each delivery.
Other peddlers in police net
The Ramamurthynagar police arrested Mohammed Irfan, who committed crimes including attempt to murder, and later became a full-time drug peddler.
Irfan personally procured drugs from Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh. He sold the drugs at parties and near schools and colleges. He also supplied drugs to Kerala. He rented a flat exclusively for the drug business and led a lavish life.
The police seized 450 grams of MDMA worth Rs 23 lakh, besides 25 grams of brown sugar and 2 kgs of ganja.
The police also arrested two more peddlers – Ram Babu of Andhra Pradesh and Mohan Raj from Mulbagal — and seized 10 kg of ganja worth Rs 3 lakh.
The Banaswadi police arrested Shaik Mohamed Yaseen who brought ganja from Hyderabad and sold it to students near schools and colleges. The police have seized 19 kg of drugs.
The DJ Halli police arrested Dilip Kumar of Andhra Pradesh who worked as a courier boy in the city and later got into ganja peddling. They seized 16 kg of ganja from him.