Hyderabad: The Telangana Excise Department on Thursday, February 5, arrested three persons for drug peddling in Hyderabad in separate raids and seized more than 16 kg of ganja from them.

In the first case, two offenders identified as Raghu Vishnoi, a resident of Jeedimetla in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, and Shekhar Ram, a native of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, were arrested for transporting ganja during a vehicle check in Bhadrachalam, Khammam.

The excise officials seized 15.070 kilograms of dried ganja from the vehicle. Upon interrogation, the accused revealed that they were transporting the ganja from Malkangiri, Odisha, to Hyderabad. The seized ganja, car and two mobile phones, all worth Rs 10.37 lakh, were handed over to Bhadrachalam excise police.

In the second case, the excise officials in Rangareddy caught an offender identified as Mohammed Zaheer while he was trying to sell ganja in Saroornagar. The excise officials seized 1.110 kilograms of ganja from him. Zaheer and the seized contraband were handed over to Saroornagar excise station for further investigation.