Arrest of Rakul Preet's brother highlights growing illegal drug trade in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The arrest of Bollywood actress Rakul Preet Singh's brother Aman Preet Singh, along with four other 'wealthy' consumers in a drug case on Monday, once again exposed the dirty underbelly of the illegal drug trade, which has been spreading silently in Hyderabad over the years.

Among the five arrested drug dealers, two are Nigerians, and among them is a woman hair stylist who lives in Bengaluru. Another drug dealer, previously involved in a similar case, relocated to Bengaluru and frequently traveled to Hyderabad to supply cocaine to customers, charging a commission of Rs 500 per gram for delivery.

Customers in Hyderabad are paying as much as Rs 12,000 for one gram of cocaine. Another Nigerian, the main kingpin of the drug-peddling racket, is absconding. Investigators from the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) revealed that the detained customers, including Aman, are establishing a drug supply and demand network in Hyderabad.

“As of now, 13 wealthy consumers, Aman, Kishan, Aniketh, Yashwanth, Rohith, Sri Charan, Prasad, Hemanth, Nikhil, Madhu, Raghu, Krishnam Raju, and Venkat from Hyderabad were identified to have been blatantly promoting a sick ecosystem of drugs in Telangana," said Rajendra Nagar, DCP Ch. Srinivas.

"They are creating a network of supply and demand for drugs in Hyderabad. We have collected information about all the nodes in the entire chain. Out of 13 consumers, five have been apprehended, and all of them got positive reports for cocaine when their urine samples were tested,” he added

The arrested consumers included Aniketh, Prasad, Madhu, Nikhil, and Rakul's brother Aman. The arrest of Aman, who is also a small-time actor, takes back to the days of the drug scandal, which rocked Tollywood in 2017.

During that period, an IPS officer Akun Sabharwal led a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that filed 12 cases and detained 30 individuals. The SIT questioned several film personalities, including popular actors Ravi Teja, Rakul Preet Sigh, and director Puri Jgannath, among others.

The peddlers who were arrested included Onuoha Blessing, alias Joana Gomes, 31, Azeez Noheem Adeshola, 29, of Nigeria, Allam Satya Venkata Gowtham, 31, Mohd Mahaboob Shareef, 36, and Sanaboina Varun Kumar, 42.

“The kingpin of the gang, Divine Ebuka Suzee, alias Ebuka, could have left for Nigeria. Currently, he is operating a large-scale drug syndicate alongside these dealers. He sends his main associate, Onuoha Blessing, to Delhi to transport the drugs to Hyderabad and other cities in India. She travels by both flights and trains and supplies the dealers.

Local dealers in Hyderabad will provide the consumers with the necessary supplies. She has now brought large quantities of cocaine more than twenty times to Hyderabad for distribution to these local drug dealers.

These four drug dealers and peddlers are supplying needy customers in Hyderabad. She is essentially a native of Nigeria, but she has concealed her nationality, obtained a passport from the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (West Africa) under the false name Joana Gomes, and arrived in India in 2018 to engage in the drug trade.

She took a fake passport in order to leave India, to avoid police cases, to escape back to her country whenever she wanted, and to conceal her entire identity,” said another senior cop of TGANB.

The sleuths of TGANB also found huge cash deposits in the bank accounts linked to another accused, Allam Venkat. "Venkat has developed very close relationships with Nigerian drug dealers and has been arranging drug deliveries to the local peddlers by taking a commission of Rs. 500 per every gram from the Nigerians."

By calculating the amount of commission he received, it would amount to 2.6 kilos of cocaine supplied to consumers and peddlers through him for the last seven months,” added the senior police official.