Five, including 78-year-old man, arrested in Hyderabad while transporting 38 kg marijuana from Araku to Mumbai

Five individuals, including a 78-year-old man, were arrested in Hyderabad on Friday for allegedly transporting 38 kg of marijuana from Araku, Visakhapatnam district, to Mumbai, according to the Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) and Gandhi Nagar police. The accused, identified as Rajaram Swami Kannu Padaiyachi, Santosh Balaram Prajapathi, Vijayalaxmi Kaliyamurti Pellai, Silmina Kujur, and Sheela Devi, were reportedly working as carriers for an unidentified source.

Padaiyachi, Kujur, and Devi are natives of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Simdega district, respectively, while Prajapathi and Pellai come from Mumbai and Tamil Nadu. The marijuana was allegedly packed in brown-colored parcels and concealed within the accused's regular travel bags. The group was said to have planned to split up and board different buses from Hyderabad to avoid suspicion, with the intention of delivering the parcels to designated locations upon arrival in Mumbai.

The police stated that the source allegedly paid the accused a commission of ₹10,000 to ₹12,000 for each delivery. Furthermore, the group had prior criminal histories related to marijuana transportation. Ongoing investigations are focused on identifying the source individual responsible for arranging the procurement and transportation of the marijuana.