Hyderabad: With an objective to eradicate illicit drug trafficking and anti-social activities in the city, the Hyderabad City Police executed a massive joint cordon and search operation, named ‘Operation Thunderbolt’, in the early hours of Thursday in Mangar Basti in Habeeb Nagar, and 15 drug offenders and 50 suspect property offenders were taken into custody.

Police also seized illegal items, including 150 sachets of ganja, 32-cough syrup bottles, one kg dry ganja and liquor bottles. According to police, the operation was executed with high tactical precision in Manganri Basti under the guidance of Hyderabad City Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar. The special operation commenced on Thursday at 3:30 am, with over 1,100 police personnel of various wings and forces: The extensive sanitisation sweep involved close coordination among various specialised wings of the city police, including Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-NEW), Task Force, H-FAST, Central Crime Station (CCS), CAR Armed Forces, and Local City Civil Police.

Gaikwad Vaibhav Raghunath, DCP Task Force, said during the thorough checks, operating teams successfully identified and took several law-breakers into custody, including property offenders, chain snatchers, habitual offenders, and persons with pending Non-Bailable Warrants (NBW). Additional Commissioners Tafsir Iqbal, (Law & Order) and SM Srinivas (Crimes & SIT), participated, monitored, and provided on-spot direction to the forces. Senior police officials warned that the department will maintain a zero-tolerance approach and clamp down heavily on individuals promoting narcotics, drugs, or disruptive criminal elements, adding that strict criminal cases will be registered against all violators to preserve public peace.