Hyderabad: In order to toughen the crackdown on narcotic smugglers, TSNAB has decided to invoke the Safema Act to neutralise the resources of drug peddlers and smugglers.
For the first time since its inception, TSNAB prosecuting offenders under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Forfeiture of Property Act. Towards this, it had a massive haul of the banned substance and net cash of Rs 40.30 lakh on August 22. After an attachment order, officials seized property worth Rs 5.20 crore from a family based in Nanakramguda. They used the money earned from ganja smuggling to buy properties, police said.
The accused Kalapathi Goutham, 21, K. Nithu Bai, 45, Madhu Bai, 60, and Chappaku Neha Bai, 24, are frequent offenders, said D. Sunita Reddy, DCP, TSNAB.
“We have done a complete research on local and interstate ganja smugglers, peddles, procurers, consumers, their modus operandi, margins, means and routes of transportation. Following a meeting with senior officials we have decided to pounce on them”, Sunita Reddy told Deccan Chronicle.
The endeavour of TSNAB is to both weaken and neutralize narcotic bulk drug peddlers, who are walking out easily when prosecuted under the PD Act. The best way to stop drug peddling is to freeze properties of the smugglers, she opined.
TSNAB has sent files of several suspects who are involved in smuggling and are operating from Chennai. All details regarding the smugglers and their activities have been detailed in the reports, police sources said.
