No fewer than seven Nigerians have been arrested in India over alleged drug trafficking.
PUNCH Metro learnt on Tuesday that the suspects were part of an international drug cartel with operations in India and Europe.
Their arrest came just days after two other Nigerians were picked up in India in separate cases involving romance scams and drug-related crimes.
The frequent arrests of Nigerians abroad have raised concerns at home and abroad, especially following recent hostilities against Nigerians in neighbouring countries such as Ghana.
According to Telangana Today on Tuesday, the seven Nigerians were arrested in a joint operation carried out by the Eagle Force and Goa Police.
The report quoted police operatives as having said that the crackdown exposed a “sophisticated hawala-based money laundering network” and led to the seizure of drugs worth more than Rs 4.5 crore.
Officials revealed that the cartel smuggled cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, LSD, and MDMA into Mumbai and Pune using courier services.
The drugs were then moved to Goa and Hyderabad through local carriers. So far, investigators have traced 33 parcels linked to the network.
During the operation, according to the report, more than 150 bank transactions were found to be linked to Nigerian accounts belonging to cartel members and their relatives.
PUNCH Metro also learnt that several other suspects were also arrested for supplying drugs in Hyderabad and Goa.
Raids in Mumbai led to the arrest of two suspects and the discovery of Rs 2.85 crore in hawala money in just one day.
The report added that the police operatives who carried out the operations disclosed that there were middlemen who collected drug money from Nigerians in Goa and moved it to Mumbai-based firms.
“The money was then laundered by converting it into goods such as garments and groceries, which were shipped in containers to Nigeria,” officials explained.
The operatives were said to have estimated each container reportedly carried goods worth about Rs 3 crore.
The ring, the report noted, not only supplied drugs in India but also sent proceeds back to Nigeria to support cartel operations in Europe and Latin America.
Although the names of the Nigerian suspects were not disclosed in the report, they add to the growing list of Nigerians arrested worldwide for drug and cybercrime offences.
In the past year alone, Nigerians have been arrested in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Ghana.
Earlier this year, more than 50 Nigerians were arrested in Ghana in a raid over alleged cybercrime, while similar concerns have also been raised in South Africa.
PUNCH.
