Hyderabad: 2 arrested for selling cocaine

Hyderabad: The Commissioner’s Task Force Team, West Zone, have apprehended two men who were found with 89 grams of cocaine, which was about to be delivered to customers, at Filmnagar, Banjara Hills for New Year celebrations.

The arrested were identified as Livio Joseph Almeida alias Piyush, 34, who runs a vehicle renting business at Calangute of Goa and U. Shankar, 41, a painter, who lives in Banjara Hills and is a native of Tanuku, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh.

“Livio Joseph Almeida lives at Fatta Waddo Nerul in Bardez of Goa and rents out vehicles at Calangute while working as a cab driver in Goa. As his earnings were not sufficient to meet his lifestyle, he resorted to selling cocaine when he observed a few Nigerian nationals purchasing cocaine from an unknown person at a low cost and selling them to customers at a higher price to make a profit,” police commissioner of Hyderabad, Anjani Kumar said.

“He started purchasing cocaine for Rs 3,000 per gram from Nigerians in Goa and selling the same for Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per grams in Goa,” Mr Kumar said.

About eight months back, he came into contact with Shankar in Goa and became friends with him. Joseph Almeida then informed Shankar about his cocaine business and asked him to assist in selling the drugs in Hyderabad and agreed to pay some amount as commission.

On Monday, when Joseph came to Hyderabad and met Shankar at Filmnagar the West Zone Task Force Team apprehended the duo and they were handed over to Banjara Hills police. Further investigation is being conducted.

 by Banjara Hills police to unearth his network with other local and foreign drug dealers.