Drug peddlers using delivery apps to skirt detection in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The age-old tactic of ‘dead drops’ used by drug peddlers has evolved, with traffickers and e-cigarette suppliers misusing parcel delivery aggregator services to evade detection.

Recently, officials from the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) served notices on aggregators, warning them of legal action if their services were found to be misused by customers.

According to officials, both drug peddlers and e-cigarette suppliers are exploiting these services. A few days ago, when officials were probing the e-cigarette racket, they found that a supplier who lived in Nampally travelled about two km to LB Stadium from where he booked a parcel for a customer through a delivery service. The delivery person from the aggregator arrived, picked up the parcel like any other consignment, and handed it over to the recipient at another roadside location.

“Earlier, drug peddlers would physically send an accomplice to leave the contraband at a predetermined public spot, and would later share the location of the dead drop with the recipient,” a police officer familiar with anti-narcotics operations told TOI. “But this method carried a high risk of being caught, especially during decoy operations. Now, these delivery apps have come as a godsend for the peddlers. By using their services, the risk factor has become negligible. This is a major challenge for anti-narcotics squads in Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other cities,” a source said.

Police officers believe that it is difficult to track these transactions as peddlers keep changing their SIM cards frequently.

In many cases, when police seize drugs or e-cigarettes from customers, they claim ignorance about who initiated the delivery and say they merely received the drug through a delivery person associated with an aggregator. They also claim that they never placed any order and claim that it was probably marked to them by someone as a prank, or an oversight.

Orders are often placed by individuals in touch with key members of drug syndicates. The syndicate members relay instructions to local agents, who then misuse aggregator services for pick-ups and deliveries.

In response, police are now urging parcel delivery aggregators to ensure greater accountability. They are insisting that every pick-up point must have a verified physical address, not just a GPS location or a vague public area. “Currently, many aggregators rely solely on the sender and receiver’s phone numbers and GPS coordinates,” the source added. “We’ve told them that parcels should only be accepted if a specific address is provided for both pick-up and delivery. Moreover, the aggregator must be aware of the contents of the parcel, which isn’t happening right now.”

Authorities have also instructed operators to record the sender’s name and other relevant details at the time of pick-up to strengthen accountability and traceability.