Drug Reaches Hyd Kids from Darknet through Whatsapp, an Investigation from Last Week Bust

 

Last week a group of drug peddlers were arrested by the Hyderabad police. It was followed by an investigation, and the investigators were stunned with the outcome.

Investigators discovered how easily drugs are available to kids. India drug users have benefited from the easy accessibility of the Darknet drug shops, but the only hindrance between them and their drug freedom is the police. The police are not giving up on Darknet drug users as they have made arrests upon others, and raids to hunt down the drug peddlers. Recently, some foreign students were arrested for forming a gang distributing illicit drugs to people.

Calvin Mascarenhas, Abdul Quddos, and Abdul Wahab were arrested in Hyderabad last week for dealing on the Darknet. Authorities launched an investigation into their Whatsapp messages and their emails. The investigators managed to identify some users linked to the Darknet drug crime. To their surprise, most of them were students.

The bottom line is that dealers use the Whatsapp and the Darknet websites to talk business and make transactions with their customers by which most of them are teenagers.

According to a report, the arrested drug dealers supplied drugs to people including teenagers as young as 13 years. These are students studying in 27 colleges and 26 schools across the city. This may provide a good foundation to help the fight against drug abuse and other form of Darknet activities among the youth in India.

Just recently, the Indian police arrested a 17-year-old boy who runs an ecstasy racket together with three other youths. It was discovered that most of the teens visit Goa for the drugs: “The main place they visit in Goa is Anjuna beach, where they have good sources, both foreigners, and locals. They smuggle LSD to Hyderabad in liquid form in small bottles, which look like eye drops,” said a senior official of the task force. He added that the LSD blot is made here in the city: “using small papers or stamps. One or two drops of LSD can make a single blot worth more than Rs 1,700.” Ecstasy is also concealed in books or other articles before smuggling it to Hyderabad.

It is not surprising to some people that most teenagers are customers of the arrested trio. Authorities have arrested 10 people including Nikhil Shetty, who is one of the four accused. Brendon Ben, a senior accused, was also arrested by the Enforcement agency. Teenagers are not the only customers identified from the Whatsapp chat, but also, some notable men. It is believed to be the largest-ever drug bust.

Akun Sabharwal, the Director of Enforcement, said to reporters that: “The investigation was started around a month before the first arrests, based on inputs of availability of psychotropic substances in Hyderabad. A Special Task Force (STF) was organized to look into this issue.”

Parents in Hyderabad have expressed their shock over this news. Usually, dealers on the Darknet distribute these drugs to the kids after the smuggling is through, and the teenagers in return sell them for a maximum profit. This reveals how hot the drug business has been in Hyderabad, even among teenagers.

Mr. Sabharwal believes that the dealers target teenagers from reputable families, looking at the price of these drugs and the frequency of purchase: “While we are doing our duty, our entire team was definitely shocked and disturbed over the availability of these drugs to young students and adults.” “Based on the investigation, it can be said that any child or adult who could afford around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per week were the only ones with the ability to buy or using LSD,” he said.

The 10 arrested men have good knowledge about the operation of Darknet marketplace, according to the police. The authorities have promised to stay out of the case if students assure them to stop their drug habit.

The majority of drugs found on the street of Hyderabad originated from the Darknet marketplace. The teens make use of the anonymity of the Darknet to order drugs. The Director of Enforcement confirmed the fact that drugs make their way through the various postal carriers after payments are made in Bitcoin: “The deliveries were done by courier services. But, we could not lay our hands on any delivery, and therefore it is not right to comment whether the drugs came from within the country or outside. Per the statement of the accused, they have paid for the drugs through Bitcoins and cards.”

The names of the arrested students were not revealed by the police in protection of their identity.