H-NEW Busts Rs 5 Crore Ganja Network After Cargo Seizures in Gudimalkapur and SR Nagar

On Thursday, the Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) busted a sophisticated pan-India ganja distribution network after tracing drug consignments that arrived by air cargo in the Gudimalkapur and SR Nagar areas of Hyderabad. The network, which allegedly operated for nearly four years across 21 states, used coded WhatsApp messages and exploited security loopholes in India Post, railway transport, and air cargo systems to ship drugs.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar revealed details of the operation, which was run by five men from Jharkhand. Police arrested one of the accused, Satyam Misra, on Thursday, while efforts are underway to apprehend the remaining four suspects: Shubham Misra, Rahul Jha, Sachin Misra, and Santosh Pandit.

The investigation, led by DCP (H-NEW) Gaikwad Vaibhav Raghunath, began when teams intercepted two ganja consignments in Gudimalkapur and SR Nagar. Officers traced the supply chain back to Jharkhand, exposing a syndicate with an annual turnover of approximately Rs 5 crore and more than 1,000 regular customers in Mumbai alone.

According to the police, the gang used cryptic terms on WhatsApp to communicate the quality of the ganja, using "Mango", "Stick", and "Flower", with "Flower" representing the highest quality. Satyam and his brother Shubham cultivated the ganja in their fields in Jharkhand. The consignments were packaged and handed over to Rahul Jha, who dispatched them.

To deceive parcel agencies, the suspects declared the shipments as medicine and listed the sender as "Dr Rahul Jha", though Rahul is not a doctor. The parcels were shipped via Speed Post from either the Isri Bazar or Phusro Bazar post offices in Jharkhand. The gang executed 80 to 100 orders daily across India, with about 10 dispatched through Speed Post. Each parcel contained 50 to 250 grams of ganja, sold for Rs 1,500 to Rs 8,000.

Apart from postal services, the syndicate operated extensively in Mumbai, where Shubham transported bulk quantities of ganja by train from Jharkhand to be stored at the residences of Sachin and Santosh. Commissioner Sajjanar stated that the police are writing to India Post and railway agencies to inform them of how the ganja supply slipped past their surveillance over the past four years.