Hyderabad: Anti-narcotics sleuths of the Telangana police – Eagle Force – have busted an international gang that went from smuggling red sanders out of the country to smuggling massive quantities of hydroponic ganja into the country. The accused, who are from Mumbai, grew the ganja in Thailand and smuggled 1,700 kg of the contraband worth Rs 1,500 crore into Mumbai through couriers in just three years.Police officers were surprised to find that hardened criminals who had been part of the Mumbai underworld were also part of the operation. The gang, headed by Hemang Pramod Keluskar, 34, included his younger brother Sudhanshu, 32, who is currently operating out of Pattaya in Thailand. Other key associates include Dal Abdulbhai Sadruddin Bhai, a dock agent from Amreli in Gujarat, Suraj Pal, former associate of gangster Ashwin Naik from Mumbai, and Rohan Felix D’Costa, a former sharpshooter of gangster Ravi Pujari also from Mumbai. They assisted the brothers in selecting couriers, transporting the contraband and in hawala transactions.During the early hours of April 8, customs officials at RGI Airport in Hyderabad caught Sodha Mohsin, who came from Bangkok with 13.2 kg of hydroponic ganja in his suitcase. Mohsin’s associate, Harshad Prajapati, who also came from Bangkok, managed to leave the airport with his suitcase containing the contraband.Alerted by customs officials, Eagle sleuths caught Harshad and his associate, Sandeep Vaswani, from BHEL crossroads while they were waiting for a bus to reach Mumbai and seized 12.7 kg of the contraband worth Rs 12.7 crore. The duo confessed to working for Hemang.During subsequent raids in different states Eagle sleuths arrested 12 more gang members, including Hemang from Karjat in Maharashtra on April 12.Eagle Force director Sandeep Shandilya said Hemang and his father Pramod Keluskar were earlier red sanders smugglers, but in 2023 they switched to hydroponic ganja due to the massive profit margin.“The gang purchased hydroponic ganja in Thailand for Rs 3 lakh a kg and sold it in India for Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore,” Shandilya said.In 2023, Hemang and Sudhanshu started a club in Pattaya along with local Thai partners called Jalwa Club which was popular among those looking for hydroponic ganja.“In Feb 2024, the brothers started a firm, Cali Goods, in Thailand along with international partners Chris Woo, a South Korean, Steve and Eric, both Americans, and Jay and Jhenney, who are UK citizens. They cultivated and procured hydroponic ganja from locals claiming they were using it for medical purposes,” Shandilya said.Sudhanshu then signed an agreement with Oriental Plantation Company Ltd in Thailand in March 2024 and took on rent a cannabis growing chamber to grow cannabis in the Nakhon Ratchasima province. The gang also purchased the contraband from Oriental Company, packed it in trolley bags and smuggled it into India through couriers. The brothers and their associates used couriers mainly from Mumbai, Amreli, Surat, Jabalpur, Ranchi, Ludhiana and Hyderabad.Investigations revealed that the gang has used 88 couriers, including 14 from Hyderabad, since 2023 and they have made 172 trips to and from Bangkok.“The contraband was sold to the elite in Mumbai and the money from the sales was going back to Thailand through hawala channels. The gang booked hotels for couriers in Thailand and paid them Rs 20,000 per trip. All the 14 couriers from Hyderabad are currently in prison. We are yet to arrest Sudhanshu. We will seek Interpol’s help in nabbing him and his foreign associates operating from Thailand,” Shandilya said.
