Drug peddler held with 200 kg poppy straw

Hyderabad: In a joint operation, the sleuths of Special Operation Team (SOT), LB Nagar along with Chaitanyapuri police busted an inter-state drug syndicate and apprehended a peddler identified as Ramesh Kumar. They also seized 2.2 kg of poppy straw and 200 kg of the poppy straw powder and other incriminating material all worth Rs 15 lakh from him.

Police said the accused migrated to Hyderabad from Rajasthan a decade ago and was running a steel railing business at Chaitanyapuri. Due to financial problems, he decided to earn easy money by selling the banned substance.

A few months ago, he came in contact with one Chenna Ram, from Rajasthan who is a drug supplier and since then he started purchasing poppy straw from him and sold it to needy customers in Hyderabad.

Police found that he procured the substance from Chenna Ram for Rs 50,000 per kg and sold the same to customer for Rs 4 lakh per kg. He also prepared poppy straw powder at his house and sold it as per the demand.

Concentrate of poppy straw is a product obtained in the process of extracting alkaloids from poppy straw. Poppy straw concentrate which is also known as crushed poppy capsule and it is a major source of morphine. By using these poppy straw concentrates, morphine and heroin are manufactured for illegal trading of drugs.