5 months ago
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Nothing astir the lane extracurricular Medha School successful Bowenpally suggests that it should beryllium remembered for thing much than the regular schoolhouse rush. Located connected the northwest fringe of Secunderabad, it is narrow, noisy and profoundly ordinary. Auto rickshaws idle impatiently successful the mornings, vendors selling stationery and snacks hover adjacent the gross and parents linger agelong capable to guarantee their children vanish safely wrong the campus. The schoolhouse gathering itself rises without drama, a functional factual operation that blends seamlessly into a neighbourhood shaped by tiny businesses, rented houses and dependable footfall. Nothing astir it hints astatine secrecy. And that, investigators present believe, was precisely the point.
For astir 9 months, portion classes were being taught for classes 1 to 10, parts of this aforesaid gathering were being utilized to manufacture alprazolam, a psychotropic cause that feeds addiction acold beyond the lanes of Bowenpally. The facade yet collapsed connected September 13 past year, erstwhile officers of Telangana’s Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE) raided the premises and uncovered a clandestine cause laboratory operating wrong the school.
Inside, constabulary seized 3.4 kilograms of finished alprazolam, 4.3 kilograms of unfinished merchandise and ₹21 lakh successful cash. Investigators accidental the wealth reflected proceeds from conscionable 2 days of sales. The accused was identified arsenic Malela Jaya Prakash Goud, 39, a nonmigratory of Old Bowenpally and manager of Medha School. According to investigators, Goud had been moving the cognition for months, deliberately utilizing the schoolhouse arsenic a shield against scrutiny.
The building, officers say, had been meticulously compartmentalised to prolong the deception. The cellar housed classrooms, wherever children sat connected benches reciting lessons. The crushed level had a bank, adding different furniture of legitimacy and dependable nationalist presence. Parts of the archetypal level were besides utilized for teaching. The rear information of the structure, however, remained nether Goud’s exclusive control. “That is wherever the cause laboratory was acceptable up. The 2nd floor, which earlier served arsenic a gym, remained locked and mostly disconnected limits,” says an officer.
That carnal separation, helium says, ensured the cognition ran without raising alarm. “Schools often person restricted areas. Locked rooms don’t rise questions. He utilized that to his advantage,” the serviceman adds.
Across the road, a middle-aged shopkeeper who sells notebooks, pens and schoolhouse bags leans against his counter, inactive struggling to process the goings-on. He has been determination for implicit a decade, watching batches of children turn taller and determination on. “We did spot boxes going successful and retired sometimes,” helium says, lowering his dependable contempt the street’s changeless din. “But each schoolhouse has supplies — furniture, exam papers, computers. Who would ever deliberation of drugs?”
He recalls transportation vehicles arriving astatine unusual hours, sometimes precocious successful the evening. “They weren’t secretive. That is what fooled everyone. If idiosyncratic is hiding something, they enactment nervous. Here, everything looked normal. Too normal.”
A genitor who lives 2 lanes distant says the revelation unsettled him successful ways helium struggles to articulate. “You driblet your kid astatine the gross and presume that inside, everything is controlled. Your worries halt astatine studies. You don’t ideate chemicals and drugs,” helium says, requesting anonymity.
Investigators says Goud supplied the alprazolam to known contacts successful Boothpur successful Mahabubnagar district. His background, they found, laic acold from education. He earlier operated a toddy store successful Mahabubnagar and had paid ₹2 lakh to 1 Guruva Reddy to get the manufacturing formula. Employees assisted successful moving the operation, and constabulary person identified respective chemic suppliers linked to the racket.
As the probe widened, officers accidental they identified 35 accused connected to the lawsuit and person arrested 7 truthful far. Several person approached courts seeking bail and anticipatory bail. The EAGLE Force of Telangana is opposing these pleas, citing the commercialized quantity involved.
“Under Section 36A(4) of the NDPS Act, bail cannot beryllium granted for a minimum of 180 days successful specified cases, which tin beryllium extended by different 180 days if the probe is ongoing. The lawsuit is inactive nether probe and much arrests are likely,” says Sandeep Shandilya, manager of EAGLE-Telangana.
For residents surviving astir Medha School, the aftermath has been unsettling, to accidental the least. The gross inactive opens each morning, but conversations agelong longer than before. Parents present look astatine the gathering differently. The familiarity, that was erstwhile reassuring, has begun to consciousness deceptive.
In 2025, the EAGLE Force, formerly the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau, recorded its astir assertive twelvemonth of enforcement since its inception, targeting some street-level proviso chains and organised interstate and planetary cause networks. Operations extended crossed Telangana and aggregate States, involving coordinated enactment with Central agencies, constabulary forces and fiscal quality units.
Across Telangana, 2,542 NDPS cases were registered up to November 30 past year, involving 8,322 accused. Drugs worthy ₹172.93 crore were seized, including consignments intercepted during inter-State operations and handed implicit to agencies successful Goa, Maharashtra, Delhi and Ranchi.
The mean fig of accused per lawsuit stood astatine conscionable implicit three, indicating a displacement towards dismantling organisation networks alternatively than making isolated arrests.
An concern loop offering deception
Just days later, successful Cherlapalli, astir 14 kilometres northbound of Bowenpally, different find startled the section instrumentality enforcement. Hyderabad’s cause trade, they realised, was not hiding successful abandoned buildings oregon acheronian alleys; it was thriving successful places engineered to look legitimate.
The Cherlapalli concern country sprawls crossed the city’s eastbound edge, wide and dusty, a dense patchwork of warehouses, chemic units and transport offices stitched unneurotic by constrictive roads and routine. It is simply a portion built connected movement. Tankers thunder past, carrying liquids fewer tin pronounce. Workers timepiece successful and retired astatine irregular hours. Activity seldom pauses agelong capable to gully attention.
Vagdevi Laboratories acceptable neatly into this landscape. From the outside, it looked nary antithetic from its neighbouring units. Its walls were plain, its signboard modest. Trucks rolled successful and out. Labourers arrived with luncheon boxes slung implicit their shoulders. It was, by each outward measures, a functioning chemic factory.
At a tiny stall a fewer metres away, a antheral successful his mid-50s pours countless glasses of beverage each day. He knows the rhythms of the country intimately. “This spot ne'er sleeps,” helium says, wiping his hands connected a cloth. “Some factories enactment time and night. So erstwhile vehicles determination astatine unusual hours, cipher notices.”
Shipments from Vagdevi Laboratories, helium says, appeared routine. “Tankers, cartons, chemicals... this is Cherlapalli. That is normal.” What concisely caught his oculus were the cars. “You would spot fancy cars, coming accelerated and leaving fast; not what you expect for a tiny unit. But adjacent then, you deliberation possibly the proprietor is rich.”
Behind those walls, investigators allege, operated a ample standard mephedrone manufacturing portion that had been moving softly for years. The lawsuit came to airy acold from Cherlapalli.
Bus halt bust to planetary proviso line
About a period earlier the raid, connected August 8, Maharashtra constabulary arrested Fatima Murad Shaikh, alias Molla, 23, astatine the Kashimira autobus halt connected Mira Road successful Thane district. She was recovered with 178 grams of mephedrone and ₹23.97 lakh successful cash. During questioning, she told investigators her root was based successful Telangana.
That disclosure triggered a concatenation of events that brought the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar Crime Branch to Hyderabad. Officers arrived quietly, placed Vagdevi Laboratories nether surveillance and began tracking patterns. When they raided the premises connected September 5, their suspicions were confirmed.
Inside the unit, constabulary recovered astir 5.8 kilograms of finished mephedrone, 35,500 litres of precursor chemicals, 950 kilograms of chemic pulverization and specialised manufacturing equipment. An serviceman progressive successful the probe says the measurement of precursor unsocial could person yielded astir 6,000 kilograms of mephedrone. At an estimated planetary marketplace terms of ₹20,000 per gram, the imaginable output was valued astatine astir ₹12,000 crore.
The premier accused, Srinivas Vijay Voleti, 34, proprietor of Vagdevi Laboratories Pvt Ltd, was taken into custody on with the firm’s chemic analyst, Tanaji. During questioning, Voleti allegedly admitted to manufacturing and selling mephedrone since 2020, supplying markets successful cities specified arsenic Mumbai and to buyers successful Dubai and parts of Europe. Officers described him arsenic tech savvy and highly cautious, avoiding mainstream connection platforms and relying alternatively connected lesser-known applications.
Laboratory investigation conducted successful Mumbai confirmed the seized substance arsenic a scheduled chemical. Investigators accidental synthetic cause manufacturers crossed confederate India person progressively shifted towards compounds specified arsenic 3-Chloromethcathinone (3 CMC), underlining however rapidly these networks accommodate to enforcement pressure. Agencies including the Narcotics Control Bureau, aerial cargo operators and planetary counterparts person been alerted arsenic constabulary enactment towards tracing overseas buyers.
The Cherlapalli probe besides intersected with the beingness and decease of Azim Abu Salem Khan, 51, a history-sheeter wanted successful aggregate narcotics cases. Khan was tracked to a level successful Pune’s Kondhwa country successful October. When officers attempted to apprehension him, helium allegedly resisted, spot a constable and collapsed wrong minutes. He was declared dormant connected accomplishment astatine a hospital. An autopsy aboriginal pointed to caput injuries and coronary atherosclerosis, and the State CID took implicit the probe arsenic per protocol. Police said Khan had been a cause addict for implicit a decennary and a bosom diligent for respective years.
Investigators allege Khan was a cardinal nexus successful a larger trafficking web that connected manufacturing units, couriers and wealth handlers. His sanction besides surfaced successful parallel fiscal investigations. In November, during an cognition successful Goa, the EAGLE Force busted a Nigerian cartel, seizing consignments worthy ₹2.85 crore and uncovering a hawala web involving transactions linked to ₹65 lakh. Raids crossed aggregate States led to the apprehension of 20 hawala operators and the seizure of ₹3.08 crore. Police said cause proceeds were routed overseas done the acquisition of goods shipped via cargo services.
At the process extremity of the investigation, a elder serviceman sums up the situation bluntly: “What makes cases similar these truthful hard is that thing looks transgression astatine archetypal glimpse — a school, a factory, a concern operating successful afloat nationalist view. These are fronts hiding successful plain sight, and that is what complicates enforcement. When everything appears routine, suspicion fades, quality dries up and the cause commercialized gets breathing space. Cracking down successful specified situations takes time, patience and often a spot of luck. By the clip we spot done the facade, the harm is already widespread.”
That consciousness of ordinariness, officers say, is the astir effectual camouflage of all. When drugs run down schoolhouse bells and mill sirens, detection becomes harder and the consequences agelong acold beyond the places that archetypal look untouched.
