Editor’s Note:

As with any article on any social issue, we’ve taken up, all the facts and incidents presented to you have been validated by verifiable proofs. For those who are considering that we might’ve made a mistake by saying Ecstacy, rather than Ecstasy, we’d like to clarify that, we are here referring to an escalated high of consciousness which is seemingly provided by Narcotic drugs. Hence, we are referring to a state of mind, and not the drug in the actual sense. We would like to thank Officers of Special Investigation Team, Unnamed Actresses, and Telangana State Police for helping us bring out this article to the best of our abilities. Thank you.

03.45 AM, 19^th July 2012, Jubilee Hills Rd No 10

As the SUV swayed the corner, the tires escaped the footpath just by a whisker. The people inside took even that moment to be one of the several moments to make the night incredibly exciting. Four boys, two girls, all out of prestigious colleges within the city, were having a moment of their life. Experimenting was the word that day, as they were pumped with Daisy Red and Ecstasy. Daisy Red a narcotic drug which gave anyone psychedelic dreams in the broad daylight, and Ecstasy which gave in the broad sunshine to the darkness in their veins. Shruti, the girl in the back seat of the car, and already removed her top, as she leant back holding her head tightly within her palms, to look and understand. But the thing with Drugs was always that – the more you fight them, the weaker you become. And at this point, Shruti was weaker than she had ever imagined. Her two friends, Bhargav and Anirudh, were still screaming continually. Bhargav and Shruti already had sex an hour back when they had just crossed Madhapur. Now, the idea someone proposed was for a threesome. The two guys were ready as they unzipped their pants, shakily and with an incredible number of giggles. Shruti realised she was already kissing Anirudh, and their hands had reached out to their private parts. The front seat consisted of Lakshmi and Sridhar who were already unofficially engaged (hence the party) and were more focused on getting back to Sainikpuri in one piece. Sridhar had a nap earlier, so he was assigned the job to drive, although not many realised that he was seeing only white streaks of light, instead of headlights which were whizzing past him. Lakshmi was too spent for the day, and she was just nodding, smiling and occasionally laughing at the things happening in the back seat.

4 Am, 19th July 2012, Jubilee Check Post

By 4 AM, The initial report (drafted at 11.30 AM on 22^nd July) states that at Jubilee Hills Check Post, the SUV stopped for around 15 minutes. The newspaper distribution boys who were unloading the bundles of various newspapers, and rearranging them according to the area of distribution, saw a movement near the divider. It took a few seconds, for them to realise that it was a girl. A girl who was entirely naked and who was sleeping on the gravel road just beside the divider. It was Shruti. The people in the SUV for some reason had left her. The newspaper boys approached her and tried helping her up, but she was entirely deranged. A tall lanky girl, who played for the college basketball team, Shruti now couldn’t even sit up. Her eyes seemed fogged up, and she had no sense of what was happening around her. One of the boys took out his mobile and started clicking her pictures. It would make for a great story later in the day, that much he knew. The GHMC women sweepers nearby were alerted by one of the elder boys, and they came to Shruti’s rescue. In the next hour, the women whisked Shruti away in an auto, from the press and media which was just about to appear as the story started spreading. Shruti was taken to the nearest Police Station in Jubilee Hills by 6 AM.

The Police located Shruti’s father by 7 AM next. The question as to how they found her father so quickly must have popped up in the reader’s mind. A woman who was stripped naked, and thrown on the desolate road, technically should’ve been very difficult to identify. Yes, it would, if she was someone unknown. But as it was, the city knew her well, very well. She was Actress Shruti Agarwal. Practically, everyone knew her this side of the country.

8 AM, 19th July 2012, Jubilee Hills Police Station

By 8 AM, Shruti’s parents had arrived from Sainikpuri. Her father worked as the Zonal Manager in State Bank Of India, and her mother was an interior designer of repute, within the page three circuit of the city.

In the next two days, favours were called, strings were pulled, and Shruti’s name was recorded in the name as Geeta. A junior artist from Krishna Nagar was included in the Police report as the girl found on the road. Geeta was handsomely compensated for taking the shame. The press followed Geeta, for her story. The newspapers flashed her version of events all over the nation. Ironically, Shruti when she woke up after 3 days, saw the news but never figured out that it was about her. And frankly, she didn’t care. Her craving had already started, as she was locked up in her room.

As days passed, she felt that her skin was burning, and she started hearing voices all around her. Her craving for drugs was not leaving her. She was crumbling within herself. At one point, She started eating paint flakes, scratching them off the wall, because it tasted somewhat similar. And as her craving led to madness, her father had no choice but to have her leave the country. But she refused to go, and by the help of her friends got hold of the Syringes once again. One day as she walked out of the room, half dazed and half alive, she found a simple note which ripped her whole life apart. Her parents, who couldn’t bear to see their child turn into a sort of blood soaking parasite, had ended their lives. They had injected air into their veins by the same syringes she found pleasure from. Ecstasy had only claimed a couple of more lives. It was business as usual for the psychedelic drug.

Chapter One – The Origins Of The Products (Inputs Sateesh Ramaswamy)

Each drug has a different story. MMA3, Ecstasy, Ephedrine, Cocaine, Heroin, LSD, are all essential parts of a thriving business racket of an estimated 3200 Crores within India. Hyderabad and Bangalore are only the recent entrants into the cities, which are already on the International Drugs & Narcotics influenced places, like Moscow, Cairo, London, New Delhi, and Mumbai. Although each of these drugs has a different making story, we still can define a particular sequence of events which holds true to almost every drug here. For these purposes, we will take the example of how Ecstasy is made from different sources.

The Pharmacy Companies – An Interview With One Of The Sources

“What we do is very basic you know. There are other companies which make MMA3 in larger quantities. Take Hexagon for example. I have practically seen their production facility in Medak. They produce both MMA3 and MDMA (Ecstasy) in pellets and ship them in strips, along with DiChloride fillings” says the Ex-Manager of a popular pharmaceutical company in the city, DRL (Dinesh Religare Labs).

Could you explain to us, how and where MDMA is made in your facility? We understand that other companies are also involved, but we are curious as to how?

Look, we don’t just produce narcotic drugs, but yes they are a part of our fortune. The process for the layman is that we procure ingredients from different sources. Chlorine pellets from Chloride companies, MethyleneDioxide, and prepared Ethylamphetamine via small barrels because it may get unstable when reacting with oxygen. We fuse these elements to bulk produce MDMA (Ecstasy). At any time our facilities are checked by the Government agencies. Therefore, we go for the simultaneous production and packing. Apart from our other products, Sramko, Homes and Relief, we produce MDMA in larger quantities. We carefully pack them in tablet strips thereafter. For example, every strip of 10 tablets of Homes, has the 7^th and 9^th tablet as MDMA while shipping. Between the distributors and us, there is an other party involved, who are called, Warehouse people. They carefully remove these tablets (the 7^th and the 9^th) and fill them with blank ineffective tablets which are neither Homes tablets, nor are they MDMA.

Why is that? You could always replace them with Homes, right? Why plain tablets?

Inventory calculations. See, these plain tablets, which are basically peppermints, are made by smaller pharmacy companies which are not registered under Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. That makes our job easy. Look, in Stock audit, we have to show that the production was equal to distributions and left over inventory. So in effect, we make only 8 tablets per strip, and our records show only that. The customer, however, gets 10 tablets per strip, with an added 2 tablets of peppermint. The warehouse people take the two MDMA tablets off, to crush them again. You see we send them tablets weighing 20 to 50mg each. But then the final buffers, have to sell them on tablet basis, and not on weight. So the tablets are crushed and repacked into tablets which weigh 5mg each. So, one original tablet of MDMA from our side splits into 3 different tablets at the end result. Each tablet now costing two thousand in rupees. Similar things happen with blots and strips for LSD as well. The cover product changes but the mechanism remains similar

Could you tell us more about these Warehouse People you spoke about?  

I told you before as well. These are people who operate between the distributors and the producers. You can say that they are at a higher level of pharmacists, who bring added flavours to the drugs. Say if we take Ecstasy, each pill rearranged to 5mg can cause skin effects internally. Your throat or stomach lining will get affected, and eventually deteriorate the health condition to unwanted complications. So to reduce its potency, Warehouse people mix them with sucrose powder (sugar). Warehouse People decide how the drugs go out and when. For some occasions, they increase the potency for a higher kick. Say, there is a new year party, or a corporate get together, the organisers place a demand to get their hands on Stunner and Liquids (strongest versions of Ecstasy and Cocaine respectively), then Warehouse people increase the effect for that specific lot. Then they send the cartons to the distributors for spreading. Some drugs to be more effective, are converted to vapour format. Less potent vapour goes to hookah parlour, and the stronger goes to the high life lounges in Jubilee hills. MDMA and Cocaine are the easiest to carry now. LSD is something which works only with potency, and therefore it needs to be delivered directly from fridges. At least that’s what the customers prefer, so the Warehouse People pack LSD in tighter vacuum packages. So all these packaging and delivery to delivery boys is taken up by the Warehouse People. They are more like the whole sale shops before we send the packages for retail selling. And they ensure that nothing traces back to us.

Chapter Two – A Sting Operation On Ecstasy And Red Jasmine (Inputs By VoxTheFox)

Where Do I Come?

You know GVK Mall. Jubilee Hills. Be in Food Court. I’ll text when I come.

You are getting the quantity I wanted. Please, I have a party, I need 6 packets.

I told you. Only 3 packets at one time. I will come. We will discuss.

Ok, I will be in Food Court at the windows side.

K.

The peddler, Chris, a black Sudanese, enters the mall looking as casual as any other visitor. The scanning machines scan him for steel and iron bearings, which might be dangerous. He isn’t carrying them but something equally dangerous in his shoes. He enters KFC on the first floor. Eventually, He orders a bucket of chicken wings and starts munching on them. He is deliberately getting late. He tells me that he’d meet me at 7 PM. And it’s already 8 PM.

Where are you? It’s 7.50 now?

Do you want to come somewhere?

Hello. Are you even coming? Hello

He plainly ignores my texts. He remains ignorant that I (and we, three members of Anti-Narcotics team) have already spotted him from the File inputs. And I am nowhere near to the location that he asked me to wait at. In fact, I’m sitting not very far from him. One of my companions is at Crosswords, and another in Aptronix. As I contemplate what is going to happen, I receive a text.

I am here. Where are you?

I see that this, Chris person, not moving an inch, and yet I get a text which is bewildering. We’ve made a mistake. We’ve identified a wrong person altogether and had stupidly followed him. I need to reply to the text before the sender becomes aware of the foul play.

Hello. Finally. I am in the washroom. Coming out in 5 minutes.

I swiftly walk out and enter the washroom on this floor, and wash my face and hands. And then head up to the food court. There are literally a hundred people on this floor, that I’m sure I would not recognise him. My companions were already on the floor, sitting randomly on the floor. As for me, I tried getting a table at the windows side. Luckily for me, one of the tables, has just been vacated, and I slide in to occupy it.

I am here. Black shirt.

In the next few moments, a young woman comes to me, and says “Is this seat taken?”. That’s my cue. She is the peddler. Then it became clear. Chris wasn’t going to take any risk, and so he has given the packets to this attractive lady. Before I answer anything she takes the seat in front of me and pulls out a book from her bag. Some Durjoy Datta book, which I assume has my requests. I pay her, 15000/-, in cash, and she quickly puts the amount into her bag. I ask her if she has more, and she stares back at me and says nothing. She is just doing her job, and my bet is that this is her first time. Unfortunately, as she stands up to leave, my companions are already here. Without making a scene, they pull up chairs to our table and sit down. Both mine and her SIM cards are destroyed, and silently we walk out of the mall.

For my cooperation, I am given a chance to talk to Payal Gupta, who has already been confirmed as a victim and not an end point peddler. My conversations with the 19-year-old Payal Gupta follow,

Where are you from Payal, and how did you meet Chris?

I am doing my B. Com in Bhavan’s Vivekananda College. I and my friends went to this party in Shamirpet, and one of the hosts introduced Chris to us. He was a Captain. Captain means, you know, one who sells drugs. So, Avinash one of my friends, took his number, because he had a party in a few weeks and wanted Captain’s goods to go with the drinks. We slowly got used to the pills. I got Captain’s number from Avinash once I was into it. So what happened is, I had a breakup. I couldn’t sleep because it was so much pain to handle. I couldn’t get over him, at all, you know, after 3 years of relationship. That is when I started contacting Captain on my own. So, by next year, I had spent around 75,000 for buying drugs. Everything I had, I gave it to him. Please don’t tell this anyone. Please, I beg you….

No. No. Please Continue. It is important that we understand what your story is?

So, I was in depression from my break up and turned to Cocaine and Ecstacy. I never ever touched LSD, but these two were what I was hooked to. Captain started charging me higher, saying that the demand was getting higher. That was true also. He and fifteen other people were supplying to our college. One time, I heard one of my friends say, every 2 students in 5 were into Drugs. Maybe it is true. Maybe not. I just heard it. The demand was good that I knew. At this point, Captain knew I was getting desperate now. I was an addict. Slowly he asked me to do different things, because I couldn’t buy the drugs with cash but needed them, otherwise, I couldn’t sleep. And I did. Please (she bursts into tears) I’m sorry..I’m sorry…I didn’t know.

Look. We will not hurt you ok? You heard the commissioner right. You are free to go tomorrow. It is important that you tell us what exactly happened so that we can help draft a statement to the press. Please?

Ermmm…Ok..Ok….I am sorry. I realise what I have done. I can’t control my emotions. I get sad easily. So as I was saying Captain used to ask me to send Nude pictures on a WhatsApp number, at least 7 PM, every day. If he liked it, he would give me one pill for free. So every day after college, I used to go to my bathroom, and strip down and take my pictures. He wanted ‘sexy pictures’ so I used to make faces, touching myself. Then he asked me to record myself masturbating in my bed. So I did that. I knew I was doing wrong, but I needed them. When I sent the video, he used to leave me 4 pills in an envelope in my mailbox at my apartment. Or make other arrangements. Then I got more desperate, and he invited me to Hotel Rising Sun at Paradise Circle. I realised what was going to happen, and I didn’t go. I tried stopping any communication with him from my side. But I felt depressed and sad all day long if I didn’t. So, I contacted him again a week later.

(At this point, Payal Gupta resorted to a lie, and understandably so. She had visited Hotel Rising Sun on a fine Sunday in the middle of January. The Investigative team doing her background check had pulled out her cab booking history, and found that she had arrived at that hotel at 11 AM, and left almost seven hours later, at 6 PM. Was she feeling guilty that she was divulging too much? Did she not remember going there? We couldn’t be sure. But we respected her decision to talk about things in the way she wanted to).

That is brave of you to have tried coming out. I am curious as to how the system works. Like how do you place your order and pick up points etc?

I don’t know it goes in other parts of the city, but in our area, it is more like friends knowing you know. I mean we have parties, and friends of friends come into contact and we become clients eventually. So, it’s word of mouth only. But I can say that exchange students are the source most of the times. Students from Sudan, Namibia, Zimbabwe come to our colleges for doing B.Com and other courses. Some come as exchange students between universities. So I think they bring their contacts here. Once we have the number, we text them on WhatsApp. There are codes which we are told on call by the Drug peddlers. Captain is Peddler, Salt is Cocaine, Killer is LSD, Manchuria is Ecstacy, Thumps Up is Weed and Ganja, Battery is Aprodine, and so on. If we want Manchuria on Saturday, we have to place our requirement by Tuesday night. Tuesday night we also have to transfer some advance through Bank or PayTM. It is cheapest to place the request on Tuesday. By Thursday they send you a confirmation and a number to send the balance amount to. Once we get the request, we have to transfer the whole amount within 6 hours. If not the order is cancelled. On payment, we are given a pickup place and number to contact. Every time the place changes and the number as well. Like GVK, I came to with you. In other instances when we were buying, the usual spots were, Behind The Momo stand @Eat Street,  IndiJoe@City Center Mall, RTC Bus Depot @ECIL X Roads, Coffee Cup@Sainikpuri, Dragon Noodles@Habsiguda, PaniPuri bandis @Madhapur, ShopperStop@Begumpet, Dominoes@Financial District, and more. Pills are delivered mostly in Pizza Boxes, Novels and Books, Amazon Cardboard boxes, Backside of Nokia 1100 and Motorockr phones etc. So that’s how it happens.

Good. That is valuable information, Payal. My colleagues wanted me to ask you about Red Jasmine. How well do you know this new drug in the market?               

I know it’s costly as fuck. One of my friends ordered it from Captain. I remember him saying that it cost him around 62000/- for a single strip. I didn’t try it. But I think it makes you hyperactive for around 20 to 25 hours, and then you pass out for more than 40 hours straight up. It is the most dangerous drug out there, that much I know. That’s all.

And so, ended my conversation with Payal Gupta, who was sent to a two-day counselling before she was allowed to go home. She is now taking concerned medical help to get rid of her addiction. In one of the De-Addiction Rehabs, Payal has been a dedicated member for over six months now. She says she’s been lucky to have been rescued before too long. Her friends have gone the whole distance, and today have ruined their promising careers and more importantly their lives and aspirations.

According to one study, by Prohibition & Excise Department of Telangana (P&E), about 90,000 students aged between 16 to 22, are addicted or have at least tried Drugs and Narcotic Materials within the city between the period for the academic year 2015-16. This figure escalates to a staggering 5,60,000 of employees between ages 23 to 27 as of 2016-17. Also as Special Investigation Team tries to crack down on multiple organisations and firms, which are indirectly or directly encouraging Drug Addiction, the companies list which came out has been horrifying, to say the least. As per the official report presented to Prohibition and Excise department (Dt March 2015) Drug addiction and abuse had gone up in software employees from MNCs like Deloitte, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Capital IQ, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Infosys, Accenture, and many more. A tough crackdown over Drug related Employee policies is to be taken up by SIT in the near future and we hope it brings about a sustainable change. One other sector which recently came into limelight regarding drug abuse has been, The Telugu Film & Television industry. We caught up with Investigation which is being discussed in the below manner.

Chapter Four: The Drug Addiction & Prevalence In Telugu Film Industry

The after party’s are the best. People who are in the movie are chilled out totally, and the people who go gaga over them, are also pretty chilled out. For those few hours, everyone is equal. An Actor, A Producer, A Cameraman, A Socialite, A Press Member, everyone is equal in these kinds of parties. It was in March 2015, that the audio-function of my film, went really good. It was attended by reasonably popular stars by a dozen, and one superstar who came at the exact moment of audio release spoke for a few minutes and went off. The audio-function ended, and thereby the after party was arranged in Novotel. Free drinks, free food was always there. But what made Novotel really stand out were its helping staff. They could get you anything. Literally anything. You just had to order it, and that would be tabbed to the event organiser or the producer. So, it was 3 AM, that Rakesh and I, decided to go with some weed. It was Rakesh’s debut movie as a Director, as for me, well I love experimenting. So, took a silent lounge and started smoking up. You know how things are. We ended up taking more drugs but the kick wasn’t setting in. That’s when Rakesh called in a Staff member and ordered cocaine and ecstasy. Both were delivered to us in the next one hour. And we happily undertook them.

The Special Investigations Team readied their operation. In the middle of February, the SIT was formed to simultaneously crack down on 7 different drug cartels as and when they operated. The key to success was catching the cartels red handed. After months of preparation, they had come out with a plan to deliver teams at Dilsukhnagar, Gachibowli, Hitec City Phase Two, Gandipet, Malkajgiri and Jubilee Hills. The relay coordination was also set under the supervision of operation commissioner ArunKumar Duraji. ArunKumar Duraji chose the Hitex location and delegated other areas to other Inspectors and Drug Officers. As the midnight arrived, the seven different teams started accessing their ‘planted men’ for information. Anything on requests, transportation, selling, or mixing needed to be reported by these ‘planted men’. And they started speaking up. One of them reported that Cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy had been transported to Novotel by a high flying known peddler, Brendon. On the other side of the city, Dilsukhnagar saw a spike up in the demand for LSD only by casual clients. Friday nights were always the catch.

“On that night, our concern was not just the cartels involved but the emergence of new and unique Narcotic drugs in the city. Drug Cartels we knew. We could identify them from our files, but there were new players in the market, and that made our operation, volatile. As our researchers predicted, by the end of it, we could identify more than 21 different categories of new drugs. Ecstasy, in comparison, seemed like a child’s play that night. That was the biggest haul in the history of Indian Narcotic raids. Of the 21 categories, Red Jasmine was something which struck us as a peculiar drug which was bought only by the elite clientele. By dawn, we had arrested 323 addicts, some doubling up as peddlers as well. We made one little mistake, which well ruined everything. And Arunkumar Duraji features prominently in this mess up” spoke our source, who works within the Special Investigative Team.

Arunkumar Duraji took up the Hitex side of operations. To make the operation instantly a sensation across the state, he had slipped out information to the press and media members an hour earlier, and a considerable amount of them were already hovering about Novotel. As the crackdown started, Arunkumar and 30 other team members, forced their way into Novotel, and caught the peddlers red handed, just at the lobby. And as it was, he led them into finding all his clients. The press was let in, and the operation was going as planned. One sudden entrance and he saw around a hundred people, some popular, some known and others unknown, almost in a trance. The team members got to work, as they started arresting everyone they saw. The press got into a frenzy as they starting recording everything. This is where one of the team members did a mistake. He went to the lounge and saw three people, two men and one woman intensely doing drugs. Upon trying to arrest, the group started resisting and started to abuse him. As things got out of hand, the team member, slapped the woman to make her steady. She wobbled, and he slapped her again. By the time of arresting her and walking her out of the lounge, he had slapped her five to six times. The press covered this also. The woman was an actress, and he was a police officer slapping her. And that was a juicer piece to the telecast.

15 minutes later, the slapping incident became live on every news channel. The integrity of the operation came into the questioning. Home Minister was called out for such a rash operation in the first place, which had no warrants (which was true. None of these crack downs was officially authorised. Official authorization meant that the politico’s involved with Drug cartels would raise an alarm. This operation, sources say, was given a nod ahead by the Home Minister, in a discreet manner, so that once the operation was done successfully, it wouldn’t matter anymore). Questions were asked and fingers were pointed. Law started to look shadier than ever. Although the operations city wide yielded results, around 20 peddlers were arrested, along with the users, it wasn’t the issue anymore. The issue was, as the news channels portrayed, the rash and erratic behaviour of SIT team in taking up these operations. In the next 30 minutes, the office of Home Minister made calls to all the news channels to look into the issue at the earliest. The operations, the arrests, the drugs seized, everything just became a myth by the morning.

The SIT wasn’t done yet. It took the colossal failure in its stride. Arunkumar Duraji was politely let go. But it was waiting, for the opportune moment to clean up the streets of Hyderabad of the Drug misfeasance. It silently picked up two of the major Drug Peddlers and distributors in the state, Calvin Mascarenhas and Brendon Ben. And also an aerospace engineer, Dundu Anish, who found Drug peddling to be a more rewarding venture. Interestingly Dundu Anish had accessed materials via a website called ‘Lunacy’ on DarkWeb which practically was Flipkart for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. We shall be covering the Dark Web in reference to Lunacy and other horrifying portals, soon in another discussion. As the investigation into Drug arrests across the city, by SIT, starts this week, we have produced our research to the Honourable Commissioner of SIT. The submitted research covers the identities of known Drug Peddlers in the city, popular connections and clients, and identified Drop points across. We hope that the research will add a beneficial merit to the undergoing investigation.

Chapter Five – What To Do If I Am A Drug Addict?

That’s a very weird thought to entertain. Am I addicted? Am I taking drugs unknowingly? Maybe you are. Maybe not. It depends. Over dependency on a particular food item from a particular food joint, could very well be an addiction. As per a report published in 2014, 56% of Food Joints in India have access or have used (occasionally or regularly) some sort of Narcotics to enhance and addict their taste to the customers. These customers can never eat anywhere else. So, perhaps it isn’t a far-fetched reality when we say that you may actually be an addict.

Although there are only abstract ways to see if the food you are taking is laced with drugs or not, it is a case of being vigilant, of your habits and cravings. In case you feel that there’s some foul play involved, please collect the food sample and call to The Food and Civil Supplies Hotline at 1800-425-00333. Or report at your nearest police station or consumer grievance cell.

The following are the major drugs today prevalent in the market, and their symptoms of addiction. We hope that such symptoms are identified early and the necessary action is taken towards Riddance.