Three Odisha-based drug peddlers were held in Hyderabad on Tuesday, January 9, selling ganja-laced chocolates in yellow and gold-coloured packets to school children, reported The New Indian Express.

The police also seized eight kg “chocolates” from them, Shamshabad Deputy Commissioner Of Police (DCP) Narayana Reddy shared on Wednesday, January 10.

The DCP said that the police began investigating after the staff member of a school in Kothur noticed students being unnaturally drowsy and behaving abnormally, hence they alerted the police. The school staff told the police that the abnormal behaviour invariably began after the students consumed chocolates in paan boxes.

“After we arrested them, we opened a chocolate pack and could smell black marijuana," the DCP said.

The accused, identified as Dheerendra Bhehara (33), Somanath Benera (35) and Suriyamani Sahu (35), are accused of selling the chocolates, packed in packets inscribed with the words Charminar Gold Munakka for Rs 20 each to students and Rs 9 to migrant labourers.

"We caught them selling these chocolates in three paan shops and seized 42 packets," the DCP said.

According to the police, the accused purchased the chocolates from a wholesale shop in Odisha. They then set up a kirana shop business to hide the ganja chocolates and sell them to their clients, added TNIE.

In the past three months, the trio had visited Odisha by train and bought more of these chocolates in bulk. They are said to have hidden the chocolates in cotton boxes kept in the store.

In 2022, Patancheru police apprehended three Odisha-based men for selling similar ganja-laced chocolates under the same name. Currently, the police are investigating the matter to identify all the shops that sell these chocolates.