Hyderabad: Twenty-five city-based marijuana smugglers have set up a syndicate, attracting investments from multiple states, for delivering the contraband to far-flung areas, sources said.
City-based peddlers, after making big bucks over the past two years, are smuggling the contraband from Araku in AP and the AP-Odisha border to Maharashtra, sources said.
It is estimated that the 25 peddlers, who have not been identified by the police, have invested over Rs 16 crore in the illegal trade. Sources said that the racket has attracted investments from parties mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
To evade the police, the smugglers use interior routes of Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to enter Maharashtra via Chandrapur, Nizamabad and Karimnagar, according to a reformed drug peddler identified as Mukesh Gupta.
According to Gupta, only people with no past police record are used for smuggling and professional drivers are hired to deliver the goods. The drivers are paid Rs 30,000 per trip, while the smugglers purchase the contraband for `3,000 per kilogram.
The syndicate generally delivers the goods to a woman, identified as Shaheen Begum, alias Shameem aunty, in Telangana and one Majid Khan, alias Mujju, in Maharashtra, at rates of Rs 18,000- Rs 20,000 per kg of marijuana.
Sources said that smugglers also set up intermediaries, to evade scrutiny, for selling the contraband. They have raked in lakhs of rupees but stay with their families in rented houses on the outskirts of the city. A senior police official said that there are more than 15 buyers from different districts of Maharashtra, but that they have been able to identify only two names so far.
