Hyderabad, February 14: Drug-peddlers trafficking cocaine to Hyderabad are normally high-fliers who aren’t the kind who’ll take a bus anywhere.
But that was exactly how Nigerian peddler Daniel Fernandes and DJ Nash brought the stuff into the city.
Closely networked into the foreign drug rings in Goa, they took the long and tiresome journey whenever they had a consignment to deliver to their high-profile clientele here.
Busted along with actress Jeevitha’s brother Murali Srinivas and one P Rambabu while in possession of 305 kg of coke on Friday, the duo are now singing to the police about their modus operandi.
Sources in the investigation told Express that the duo had the drugs delivered to them by bus from Karnataka. “Generally peddlers move from place to place by bus or by train, second class. The coke is packed in small packets, with only a tiny quantity in each. It is easy to conceal and there is little likelihood of a anti-narcotics check,’’ a detective said.
The bus route was also the preferred mode of trafficking in earlier busts. A similar inter-state smuggling racket was unearthed last year by the Madhapur police when film producer K Venkateshwar Rao and his accomplice Shobraj were caught peddling ephedrine.
The peddlers come to the city as tourists and ply the stuff to conduits who are well networked in party circles.
The conduits open up high-profile clientele to the peddler. Investigators say DJ Nash was one such conduit who kept the company of Tollywood personalities and children of influential personalities. The police, however, are tight-lipped about the friends of DJ Nash.
Nash’s real name is P Bhanu Chander. He acquired the nifty moniker by virtue of his chosen profession: spinning discs at pubs and parties.
Son of an Indian Forest Service officer and a dropout from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology (MGIT) for lack of attendance, DJ Nash’s day was filled with music, parties and, police say, cocaine. Until he was busted on Friday, life was a high.
Sources investigating the case told Express that DJ Nash started his career at ‘Hunt’, a pub in Somajiguda in the early 2000s and moved on to other discos in the city.
He was drawn into the circle of sons and daughters of wealthy businessmen and Tollywood personalities.
One such friend was actress Jeevitha’s brother Murali.
The friend network and his career took him to Goa six months ago. There he forged links with foreign cl ientele. “Since many pub owners in Goa are hand-in-glove with peddlers, DJ Nash was drawn into the drug network and he began supplying the contraband to friends back home in Hyderabad,’’ police said.
During a drug investigation, the West Zone police stumbled on a tipoff that DJ Nash and Daniel Fernandez were taking a bus in Goa with a consignment of coke bound for Hyderabad.
“Since passengers are not checked in buses, Nash and Daniel thought it was a safe mode of transporting cocaine,’’ officials said.
Now that Nash is in their net, police are keeping an eye on other DJs in the city.
–Agencies