Ganja parcels sent as medicines via speed post: Hyderabad cops bust drug racket

The Hyderabad Police has busted an interstate drug trafficking syndicate that police said was using postal and courier services to send ganja to customers across the country. The network, which operated mainly from Jharkhand, was uncovered after a ganja parcel sent through Speed Post to Hyderabad was intercepted, leading investigators to the alleged supply chain.

The Narcotics Enforcement Wing said the probe also exposed a serious security gap, with the syndicate allegedly using the postal system to move narcotics across states. The city police said the consignments sent to Hyderabad came by air and were not scanned during train or air transit.

According to police, the network was dismantled after the arrest of its alleged mastermind, Satyam Misra of Giridih district in Jharkhand. The case came to light when the narcotics department intercepted a parcel containing ganja that had been sent from Jharkhand to a recipient in Hyderabad. Questioning of the receiver then led police to the wider network, the release said.

Police said Satyam Misra had discontinued his education because of financial hardship and had worked as a painter before taking up work as a driver of commercial transport vehicles to different states. During frequent trips to Mumbai, he allegedly became addicted to ganja in 2018 and came into contact with consumers and peddlers.

Police alleged that he later joined the ganja trade with his elder brother Shubham Misra and built an organised syndicate with Sachin Misra, Rahul Jha and Santosh Pandit.

The syndicate allegedly cultivated ganja in its native village and also sourced it from unidentified local sources in Jharkhand. Police said it supplied customers in nearly 21 states, including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

To send the contraband, the accused allegedly used the Isri Bazar and Phusro Bazar post offices in Jharkhand and falsely declared the parcels as medicines while booking them through Speed Post.

Police said the syndicate sent around 80 to 100 orders a day across the country, including eight to 10 consignments through Speed Post daily. Each parcel usually contained 50 to 250 grams of ganja, which was allegedly sold for Rs 1,500 to Rs 8,000 per order. According to officials, the syndicate earned about Rs 1 lakh a day, or around Rs 30 lakh to Rs 35 lakh a month, with an annual turnover of about Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Apart from postal dispatches, the gang also allegedly ran a large network in Mumbai with more than 1,000 regular consumers. Police said Shubham Misra personally carried bulk quantities of ganja by train from Jharkhand to Mumbai, where it was stored at the homes of Sachin Misra and Santosh Pandit.

The accused allegedly handled clients in Mumbai remotely from Jharkhand through a messaging app and used the code words "mango, stick and flower" and phrases such as "one mango", "three mango" and "10 mango" to indicate different quantities of ganja.

Highlighting the security concerns, the police said, "Notably, the consignments sent to Hyderabad arrived via air transport. Investigation revealed that these parcels were not subjected to any scanning during train or air transit." The city police said it would formally write to higher authorities in the concerned Central departments to seek stronger scanning and screening of postal parcels.

Following the case, Hyderabad Police said it was stepping up surveillance on courier agencies and had directed all such agencies in the city to mandatorily scan every parcel they book and deliver. Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar also commended the officials involved in the operation.

The case, according to police, exposed both a large interstate ganja supply chain and a gap in the screening of parcels moving through postal and transport networks, while the arrests and follow-up action have led to tighter checks on courier services in Hyderabad.