The fight against drugs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has changed shape again. Police still torch fields in the Eastern Ghats, but traffickers have already pivoted. This new generation runs operations out of luxury apartments and handles deals in encrypted corners of the Dark Web. Let’s look at how the drug trade is morphing, drawing from the latest data from the Hyderabad Police, Telangana Excise Department, and the AP EAGLE Task Force.
Micro-Cultivation Boom: Indoor Hydroponic Ganja
Once, marijuana fields sprawled across hillsides, easy targets for drones and satellites. That era is fading. Traffickers now use hydroponics—growing potent cannabis indoors, roots dangling in nutrient-rich water, hidden from prying eyes. The risk factors are widely opened. On March 9, 2026, authorities at Shamshabad Airport intercepted hydroponic weed worth Rs 3 crore from passengers flying in from Kuala Lumpur. In April 2025, a techie and an architect were arrested in Nallakunta with 1,380 grams of “hydro,” valued at nearly Rs 1 crore. Why bother with hydroponics? This premium product fetches 10–20 times the price of traditional Andhra ganja. Indoor growers make huge profits, and their small-scale setups slip under the radar.
Synthetic Surge: MDMA and LSD
Hyderabad’s party scene has exploded beyond its old boundaries. Synthetic drugs—MDMA and LSD—are everywhere now. The numbers say it all. In 2025, Hyderabad Police seized over 6,000 kilograms of narcotics, with drug cases jumping 14% from the year before. Opium busts hit 3,311 kg, almost triple the total of the previous two years together. MDMA seizures reached 1,771 grams, a clear sign that consumers are turning away from old-school weed and toward chemical highs.
Traditional Ganja: The Heartland Under Pressure
Visakhapatnam and the Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district used to be the “Ganja Capital” of India. Today, law enforcement is cracking down harder than ever. Operation Chaitanyam saw the AP EAGLE Task Force destroy cannabis crops over 94.77 acres and uproot more than 31,000 plants in the ASR district. From January to October 2025, Visakhapatnam Range Police dismantled 69 drug networks, arrested 1,390 people, and seized over 28,000 kg of ganja.
Digital Frontier: Dark Web & Crypto
The biggest headache for police right now is- the drug trade’s digital makeover. Dealers use the Dark Web and cryptocurrency to keep things invisible. Take 'Team Kalki.' Since 2025, this network has allegedly sent over 1,000 drug consignments, sourcing LSD from the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Payments happen through privacy-heavy cryptocurrencies like Monero and USDT—good luck tracing that money. And deliveries.. On March 5, 2026, Hyderabad’s HNEW unit seized MDMA worth ₹25 lakh. The suspects relied on “dead-drops”: stash the drugs in a public place, send the buyer GPS coordinates via encrypted apps like WhatsApp. Seller and buyer never meet.
Govt Response: Are We Doing Enough?
The Andhra Pradesh government says it will confiscate properties belonging to drug offenders. But experts warn: punishment alone won’t fix this. Here’s the catch—many tribal farmers in the Eastern Ghats keep growing ganja because it’s the only way they can survive. Police burn the crops, but government programs offering alternative livelihoods are still too small in scale. Unless legal farming can compete with the money from ganja, these shadows will keep shifting, always one step ahead.
