In a major bust, two people were held with 1,400 marijuana chocolates after raids conducted by Telangana's Excise Department in the state's Medchal-Malkajgiri district of on Saturday. Large parts of Secunderabad and some parts of Hyderabad come under the jurisdiction of the district administration.
Speaking to reporters, Balanagar Prohibition and Excise station inspector Jeevan Kiran said that the marijuana was mixed in the chocolate and wrapped in normal chocolate covers, before being sold in a pan shop.
"After being caught once, the accused in this case decided to change their modus operandi and began preparing marijuana chocolates, so that they could sell it to customers more easily. Based on a tip-off, we raided the pan shop and found a few packets with 40 chocolates each," the official said.
"After questioning him, we conducted another raid at a warehouse where we found 33 such packets. We have seized 1,400 chocolates in total with marijuana weighing 9.4 kg inside them," he added.
After their arrest, the accused were presented in front of a local court and sent to judicial remand. Many drug peddlers in the city are ditching conventional methods of smuggling marijuana and adopting new ways
Just last month, officials of Telangana's Vigilance and Enforcement department on Saturday raided a flat in Hyderabad and arrested two people who were allegedly involved in the procurement and sale of liquid ganja, also known as marijuana oil. The raid and arrest were carried out at an apartment in Ameenpur village at the outskirts of the city, which falls under Sangareddy district.
The police said that a total of 1,934 grams of liquid ganja, which was worth roughly Rs 7.8 lakh in the market, was seized from the accused.
The accused were using 600 ml Dabur Honey bottles to smuggle the liquid into the city. Thereafter, they’d fill 10 ml food colour containers with the liquid and sell them to potential customers for about Rs 3,000 per bottle, officials had said at the time.