The city police arrested eleven people on Monday who were marketing mucormycosis medication through WhatsApp contacts. According to a notice, the police confiscated 10 vials of amphotericin-B liposome. The gang was caught trying to sell each vial for 60,000 yen.
The defendants include Dandla Adireddy from Bhavanipuram, Kathula Naveen Kumar from Moghalrajpuram, wife and husband Dr. Atluri Nagamani and Sunil Kumar from Pappula Mill Road, Kalava Harshad Kumar from Chittinagar, Madhu Sudhakar from Payakapuram, Batra Abhijeet, Kattumala Deepak Kumar and Ayodhya Nagar, Kommuri Mahesh from Devinagar and Tadisetti Nagoor Babu from Mutyalampadu.
Police said some of the gang members were linked through a WhatsApp group. Adireddy and his colleague Naveen Kumar allegedly sold drugs, oxygen concentrators, and others for profit through the group and were asked by another gang, Nagoor Babu and friends, to procure black fungus drugs.
Adireddy allegedly bought the drugs through his driver Srihari from Hyderabad and sold each vial for 47,000 yen to Naveen, who in turn sold each vial to the couple for 49,000 yen.
Dr. Nagamani and Sunil then sold the drugs to Harshad for 51,000 yen per vial, and Nagoor and friends tried to sell them for 60,000 yen each in Penamaluru to a person they contacted via WhatsApp.
Dr. Nagamani bought remdesivir vials for 35,000 yen each from Naveen a few weeks ago through an owner of a medical store. Dr. Nagamani, who studied MBBS, is not currently working.