Hyderabad restaurateur held with cocaine in sandals

Hyderabad: Two persons, including a restaurant owner, were caught by anti-drug enforcement wing EAGLE at Kompally on Monday night. The restaurant owner was placed under arrest after a search of his vehicle yielded the possession of cocaine and other narcotic substances.

Police said he was both a consumer and supplier, abusing drugs at prominent pubs in the city, and supplying the contraband to fitness enthusiasts, IT professionals and doctors among other high-profile clients.EAGLE officials said that Surya Annamaneni, a BTech-MBA graduate, was sourcing the drug from several peddlers, both Indian and foreign nationals, residing in various parts of India.

The enforcement team, which kept surveillance on Surya, caught him while he was seated in his SUV in front of his restaurant, Malnadu Kitchen, in Kompally on Monday night.

The vehicle was searched and the officials found drugs stashed in the heels of ladies footwear, which was a parcel.“The searches resulted in discovery of 10 grams of cocaine, 3.2 grams OG Kush (Ganja), and 1.6 grams of Ecstasy pills. The cocaine was hidden ingeniously in the heel of the ladies’ footwear, packed inside a pink cardboard box, and sent by courier from New Delhi under the alias name ‘Fatima’, EAGLE officials said.

Humble beginningsSurya, who started his career in Bengaluru as a sales manager, returned to Hyderabad in 2020 and started his own restaurant. Initially, he got into drugs as a consumer and later he became a supplier and his clientele included fitness enthusiasts, IT professionals, doctors and directors of a pub.“The accused maintained financial dealings through personal and commercial bank accounts, including the one linked to Ternion Hospitality, a business entity created while taking over a Madhapur-based restaurant,’’ police said.

While investigating the case, the officials found that he was getting drugs from Harsha of Himayatnagar, Sandeep Juvvadi of Karimnagar, and Pallepaka Mohan of Khajaguda. Similarly, Nigerian drug traffickers — Nick, Jerry, Dezmond, Stanley, and Prince — were supplying the contraband from Delhi, Bengaluru, and Goa.

Investigators tracked bank transactions done by the accused with drug suppliers.“Several pubs have come under scrutiny for facilitating drug consumption by allocating restricted areas for substance use. The accused also revealed that he, along with friends, made multiple trips to Goa, where they procured and abused cocaine from Nigerian nationals Dezmond and Stanley. In 2022, a visit to New Delhi for a wedding brought him into contact with another Nigerian supplier, Prince, from whom he procured cocaine.