Homemade drugs challenge Hyderabad cops

Hyderabad: As the city police intensified the drive against drug trafficking, peddlers devised a new way to hoodwink the cops and are allegedly preparing homemade drugs to cater to their clientele.

For the city police, these homemade drugs are posing a new challenge. Police officials, who had until recently changed their focus on catching kingpins of the trade and targeting the source of the supply from outside the state, now have to keep a tab on drugs being manufactured within the city.

On March 31, the H-NEW (Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing) personnel arrested K. Sreeram, 25, who was found manufacturing a high quality batch of DMT (Di-methyl Tryptomine) at his residence in Kondapur. According to the police, Sreeram procured the required ingredients from Amazon and local pharmacies to manufacture the drug.

“Sreeram, who has no chemistry background, was able to extract a pure batch of changa after several trial and error methods. He has been doing drugs during his college days. He later learnt about the process of preparing drugs through the internet and social media. He procured all the required ingredients through Amazon, IndiaMart and chemical shops, posing as a medico. Subsequently he extracted a pure batch of DMT/changa and was selling it for Rs 8,000 per batch,” said Chakravarthy Gummi, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), H-NEW.

His customer, S. Deepak Kumar Jadhav, 29, an employee of Regalix, was also arrested and we seized 8 grams of changa along with drug processing equipment like glass jars, pipits, chemicals, snorting pipes, etc. S. Rajashekar Reddy, station house officer of the Jubilee Hills police, who took over the further investigation in the Sreeram case, said the officials had been keeping an eye on the sales of alternative drugs and to an extent, on certain ingredients used in preparing drugs.

“We have been vigilant on such sales. We are also keeping tabs on the sale of correction fluids, paint thinners and other such commodities,” said the official.

Earlier too, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) nabbed a PhD scholar for manufacturing and supplying Meow Meow drug (also known as Mephedrone, 4 Methylmethcathinone or 4-methylephedrone) at a secret lab in Hyderabad. The DRI intercepted the manufacturer and the receiver during an exchange, following which they seized 3.156 kilograms of Mephedrone worth Rs 63.12 lakh from their possession. A raid was also conducted at the manufacturer’s house, from where the officials recovered Rs 12.40 lakh cash and 112 grams of Mephedrone samples.