Hyderabad: In a major success in Telangana’s fight against narcotics, the Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE) team’s newly restructured and intensified anti-narcotics force has seized 935.611 kilograms of ganja worth Rs.5 crore and busted a well-organized smuggling syndicate operating between Odisha and Maharashtra via Andhra Pradesh.
This is Telangana’s largest ganja seizure in 2025, demonstrating the operational excellence of EAGLE, which has replaced the erstwhile Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) with a more agile, intelligence-driven, and field-focused structure.
The team at Regional Narcotic Control Centre (RNCC) in Khammam and Rachakonda narcotic police personnel received a specific input regarding transportation of bulk ganja in a good vehicle escorted by an SUV. The smuggling convoy was expected to pass through Batasingaram fruit market junction on the Vijayawada National Highway between 2 pm and 4 pm.
The team deployed surveillance units and technical personnel at the location. The target vehicle was successfully intercepted at 3.05 pm and brought under control. Upon inspection, 35 HDPE bags were found hidden beneath empty plastic fruit trays in the vehicle, containing 455 packets of ganja, each sealed in brown tape. The total seized contraband is 935.611 kgs.
The arrested accused confessed that the operation was orchestrated by Pawar Kumar Badu, a repeat NDPS offender from Maharashtra, in coordination with Sachin Gangaram Chouhan, who is absconding and Vicky Seth, Odisha-based supplier).
The trio – Pawar Kumar, Samadhan Kantilal Bhise, and Vinayak Baba Saheb Pawar – travelled from Maharashtra to Rajahmundry on July 23 in a rented SUV and met Sachin, who loaded the ganja consignment into the vehicle. The convoy set off towards Maharashtra with an SUV escorting it to evade checks.
The ganja was concealed under fruit trays, and the syndicate operated on a credit-based model, financing local suppliers and buyers, maintaining accounts, and ensuring steady distribution channels. The investigation clearly establishes their role in financing, transporting, and distributing narcotics, invoking Section 27A of the NDPS Act.
As many as 935.611 kgs of ganja, half a dozen mobile phones each with dual SIMs, a good vehicle and an SUV were seized from the possession of the arrested persons.
