Hyderabad: Four Vizag-based realtors and a restaurant owner from Hyderabad who were allegedly smuggling the banned Ephedrine drug worth around Rs 25.5 lakh were arrested in a joint operation by the taskforce and Mirchowk police. South zone DCP V. Satyanarayana said the suspects P. Kesava alias Shiva of Tirupati, R. Sri Pavan Kumar alias Daniel, R. Suresh Reddy alias Rajesh, P. Hemanth Kumar Goud of Visakhapatnam and P. Praveen Reddy of Hyderabad smuggled the drug from Tirupati.

Police nabbed the five at the out gate of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station after finding a bag containing a white coloured powder packed in two polythene packets weighing 850 grams with them. After the Clues team tested the powder, it was found to be Ephedrine. “Keshava collected the drug from one of his friends in Tirupati and went to Vizag. From there along with other four suspects he came to Hyderabad to sell it. They were planning to sell it as brown sugar,” DCP Satyanarayana said. He said that investigation is on to track down others involved in the racket. The arrested persons were remanded to judicial custody.