Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) found various violations during a special drive on sweet manufacturing and retail units across all districts of Telangana.

The Food Safety Officers of TG SAFE conducted a special drive and inspections at 53 sweet manufacturing and retail units.

The TG SAFE said in a statement on Sunday that during the inspection conducted on Friday (October 23), the officials noticed various violations in some establishments.

The officials found damaged flooring with littering of food waste; an unclean washing area; drains clogged with food waste; walls with dirt, dust and spillage of food waste. There was an absence of records, such as pest control records, health records of food handlers, etc., food handlers found without hairnets, gloves, etc., greasy exhausts and chimneys and improper storage practices, like food articles being stored on the floor, keeping of food and non-food articles together.

The officials collected 38 samples on suspicion of adulteration. An improvement notice will be issued to 20 establishments for rectification of the lapses identified during the inspection.

The establishments will be revisited to verify status of compliance with food safety norms and further action will be taken based on reinspection, and a show cause notice will be issued to one establishment for the violations reported during the inspections and further action will be initiated for imposing penalties, TG SAFE Commissioner said.

The special drive was conducted in districts such as Mancherial, Jangaon, Siddipet, Khammam, Narayanpet, Jogulamba Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Peddapalli, Kamareddy, Nagarkurnool, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Hanumakonda, Medak, Warangal, Rajanna Sircilla, Jagtiyal, Mahabubnagar and Kothagudem.

Earlier, three sweet shops in Hyderabad lost licences after TG SAFE raids last week.

The officials found hygiene violations and other food safety lapses during inspections and directed three establishments to stop business operations immediately in the interest of public health.

Enforcement officials found cobwebs, greasy exhaust, improper storage practices and poor personal hygiene among food handlers, some of whom had overgrown nails. Officials also reported storage pests in food articles, cockroach infestation and fungal contamination in pickles.

The three establishments were among 21 khoa and sweet manufacturing and retail units inspected by 11 enforcement teams comprising food safety officers and police personnel in the core urban region.

Across the inspections, officials collected 21 samples on suspicion of adulteration and seized 1,035 kg of food articles worth Rs 7,75,850, officials said.

A criminal of the Chhaimar gang, also known as the Kachha-Baniyan gang and carrying a reward of Rs.1 lakh, was arrested after an exchange of fire with Delhi Police in the South District, police said on Sunday.

The accused, identified as Savan alias Sudhan alias Hira alias Muchhoda Fufa alias Muchhoda Chacha, was allegedly caught while he was conducting reconnaissance of farmhouses in the jurisdiction of Maidan Garhi police station with the intention of committing dacoity when a police team moved to intercept him.

The team from Maidan Garhi police station, comprising SI Narendra Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector Ashok Mehta, Head Constables Sube Singh, Shakti, and Pradeep, and Constable Waseem Akram, acted on secret information about the suspect’s movement.

According to police, the suspect allegedly opened fire at the team twice during the operation, with a bullet striking the bulletproof jacket of Sub-Inspector Narendra Kumar. The police retaliated, and Constable Akram fired at the suspect, hitting him in the right calf. The injured accused was apprehended and subsequently shifted to AIIMS Trauma Centre for treatment, police said.

According to the police, the suspect arrived on a motorcycle from the Bass Gaon Road at around 6.25 am on Sunday and was identified by a secret informer. When the team attempted to stop him, he allegedly fired at the personnel with a country-made pistol.

SI Narendra Kumar fired three warning rounds. The suspect subsequently took out another country-made pistol and allegedly fired again, with a bullet striking the bulletproof jacket of SI Kumar, prompting the police to retaliate.

The accused is reportedly wanted in several serious criminal cases including dacoity, robbery and murder, registered in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. A reward of Rs 1 lakh had been declared for him by the Additional Director General of Police, Varanasi Zone, in connection with a dacoity-cum-murder case registered at Shahganj police station in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh in 2014.

His criminal antecedents also include an FIR registered at Raya police station in Mathura in 2016 in connection with a robbery-cum-murder case. In addition, he is reportedly wanted in a murder-cum-robbery case registered at City-2 police station in Mansa, Punjab, in 2024.

The suspect’s modus operandi was to survey farmhouses to identify targets before carrying out dacoities. The police received information about his presence in the Maidan Garhi area, which prompted the police operation that ended with his arrest following the exchange of fire.

Further investigation is underway to determine his role in other criminal cases, the police said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted coordinated searches across Mizoram and Manipur under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in three cases linked to cross-border drug trafficking from Myanmar and narco-hawala operations, the central probe agency said on Sunday.

The ED said that the searches were carried out in coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mizoram Police.

As part of the crackdown, the ED froze 1,424 bank accounts and provisionally attached properties worth Rs 17.82 crore, taking the total value of assets secured in the cases to over Rs 26 crore. Six accused have been arrested, while proceedings for the arrest of four more are underway.

An official statement said that the ED’s Aizawl and Imphal Sub-Zonal offices, on October 23, conducted coordinated search operations under the PMLA at multiple premises in Aizawl, Champhai and Lawngtlai in Mizoram, and Churachandpur in Manipur. The operation was conducted in three cases of money laundering arising from cross-border trafficking of heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets from Myanmar and the hawala settlement of the drug proceeds.

The operation was conducted in coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mizoram Police, which carried out parallel action against the trafficking network on the same day.

During the action, ED froze 1,424 bank accounts connected to narco-trade and narco-hawala operators in Mizoram and Manipur and provisionally attached properties worth Rs 17.82 crore belonging to narco-hawala operators based in Mizoram.

ED had earlier secured assets worth Rs 8.19 crore in the form of frozen bank accounts, taking the total assets secured to over Rs 26 crore. Six accused persons were arrested under Section 19 of PMLA during searches — three in Mizoram and three in Manipur. Production-for-arrest applications against four more accused, presently in judicial custody in narcotics cases, are being processed before the Special Court in Mizoram.

The ED investigation was initiated in three cases on the basis of FIRs under the NDPS Act, 1985. According to the statement, the investigation in the three cases has exposed one interconnected narco-hawala ecosystem in which the same set of bank accounts in Champhai, Aizawl and Lawngtlai in Mizoram received drug money generated in Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura and settled it with suppliers in Myanmar.

The Northeast region, sharing a 1,643 km porous border with Myanmar, has emerged as the principal land corridor for drugs produced in the Golden Triangle. Heroin and methamphetamine tablets entering Mizoram and Manipur are consumed locally and moved onward through Assam to the rest of India and Bangladesh, and the drug money generated across this chain flows back to the border towns of Mizoram for settlement with the Myanmar-based suppliers, the statement noted.

The trafficking corridor works as a two-way street through the Champhai-Zokhawthar sector of Mizoram. In one direction, precursor and cutting chemicals move from India to Myanmar — M/s Krishiv Enterprises dispatched about 32 tonnes of Caffeine Anhydrous in 15 consignments between March and November 2024, besides 10 tonnes of Aluminium Chloride Anhydrous, on regular E-way bills and GST invoices to small retail pharmacies and a general store in Aizawl and the border belt of Mizoram that have no manufacturing or processing facility of their own.

From these front consignees, the chemicals are moved onward across the border to the tablet-pressing units in Myanmar, where Caffeine Anhydrous is used to bulk and cut methamphetamine into the “Yaba” tablets. In the other direction, the finished heroin, brown sugar and methamphetamine tablets produced in Myanmar are carried across the Tiau river at Zokhawthar, the border crossing opposite Khawmawi in Myanmar, and staged at Champhai, from where they travel down the Champhai-Aizawl road and National Highway-06A to Aizawl, Vairengte and the Assam and Tripura borders.

Myanmar-based organisers such as Runthanchhungi alias Nu Sungi and Chintuang hire local carriers in Zokhawthar and Champhai, move consignments concealed in soap cases, taxis, motorcycles and truck convoys with escort vehicles, and are paid through the same Champhai hawala accounts that receive the drug money from across the North-East, so that the chemical supply, the drug flow and the money trail all converge on the Champhai-Zokhawthar corridor.

That money trail begins far from bordering Champhai. The drugs that leave the corridor are sold for cash across Manipur, Assam, Tripura and in other parts of India, with the cash moved through hawala, and the sale proceeds have to be gathered up and sent back to the suppliers in Myanmar.

In the Churachandpur sector of Manipur, this cash was collected by syndicate operatives such as Nengzatuan Valte, alias Tuanpi and handed to cash handlers like Zenngaihniang, alias Taniang, from whose hands it entered the banking system through Mini-ATM/Customer Service Point counters. Taniang delivered up to Rs 1 crore per day at M/s Go Alpha Trip, a Mini-ATM and money-transfer counter in Churachandpur run by H. Gouzalal, along with a list of beneficiary accounts. Recording her under the code name “NUNIANG”, the counter made 2,947 transfers aggregating Rs 175.03 crore between 2024 and June 2026 to traders, pharmacies and individuals in Zokhawthar, Champhai, Lawngtlai and Aizawl, routing part of the money through other Churachandpur counters and front entities to break the trail.

The beneficiary pharmacies, general stores and individuals in Mizoram, who rented their accounts for Rs 500 per lakh, passed the money on within days through RTGS/NEFT/IMPS with negligible cash withdrawals and no underlying trade.

Of the Rs 11.98 crore received in seven accounts analysed, only Rs 17 lakh was withdrawn in cash. The account of a Champhai homemaker, operated by her bank-employee husband, alone received Rs 15.48 crore against a family income of about Rs 27,000 per month.

The layered funds finally reach unlicensed Rupee-Kyat exchangers in Champhai, chiefly Lalrampari and her husband Lalliansanga (Proprietor of M/s JTS Store), whose accounts recorded credits of about Rs 268.80 crore, including Rs 125 crore in cash from Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi.

Significantly, the drug money reaching the hawala accounts in Aizawl and Champhai did not come from the Northeast alone. The accounts received substantial funds from New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, including about Rs 2.14 crore received by hawala operator Lalrinkima from shell entities based in Kolkata and Rs 10 lakh received by Taniang from a Howrah-based (Kolkata) shell company, besides cash deposited at Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Silchar into accounts of Champhai-based operators, indicating that proceeds of drugs sold in the metropolitan cities were being routed back to the border through layered corporate and hawala channels.

On instructions from Myanmar-based persons, they transferred the money to accounts across India and settled the suppliers’ dues in Kyat across the border for a commission of Rs 250-500 per lakh. The proceeds were integrated into real estate and businesses, including Hotel JTS, a five-storey commercial building in Zion Veng, Champhai, built out of funds routed through hawala accounts.

Searches covered the premises of hawala operators, mule-account holders, front businesses and the Mini-ATM counter in Champhai, Aizawl, Lawngtlai and Churachandpur, and bank branches holding the key accounts.

Incriminating ledgers of cash received and transfers made, cheque books, debit cards, mobile phones and digital devices used to operate the accounts were seized. Account holders admitted that their accounts were rented to suspected narco-hawala operators for Rs 500 per lakh. The ledgers of Go Alpha Trip, Churachandpur, matched the credits in the Mizoram accounts under investigation in the two Aizawl cases — Thangkhuala and his wife (Rs 2.22 crore), Zuali Drugs Store (Rs 2.67 crore), Fung Than Kimi (Rs 2.05 crore), Lalbiakhluna Lalduhawma (Rs 1.82 crore) and Lalrampari establishing that the drug cash collected in Manipur was being settled through the same Champhai hawala accounts that service the heroin and methamphetamine networks of Mizoram.

Six accused were arrested under Section 19 of PMLA during the searches, including Kashyap G. Thakkar, Thangkhuala, T. Chatuan Vanlalgakha, all in Mizoram; Zenngaihniang alias Taniang, Nengzatuan Valte alias Tuanpi and H. Gouzalal, all of Churachandpur, Manipur.

Taniang and Tuanpi, already in judicial custody in the NDPS cases, were formally arrested with the permission of the Special Judge, ND&PS, Churachandpur. The arrested persons are being produced before the jurisdictional Special Courts (PMLA).