Hyderabad: Five Nigerians and a woman from Vijayawada were arrested by the Rachakonda police in another major drug bust on Monday. While one of the arrested is the president of the Association of Nigerian Nationals in Hyderabad, two of them are students of Nizam College. Police allege that the gang is also involved in human trafficking, supplying Nigerian women for the flesh trade in India.
Police say they have seized huge quantities of cocaine, brown sugar, amphetamine and ganja from their possession.
The arrested persons are Palaparthi Sangeetha, 35, John Okorie, 26, and Okereke Cyril Anezi, 31, both students of Nizam College, Ojukwu Cosmas, 30, John Paul Oneybuchi, 34, and Ogunka Henry Okechukwu, 31. Police are also on the lookout for another member of the gang, Gabriel.
Gang has links in Goa, Mumbai, Chennai
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said that on Sunday night, Sangeetha and John were caught at LB Nagar bus stop and a huge quantity of ganja and cocaine was found on them. During questioning, Sangeetha revealed that she came into contact with Cosmas some months ago through Facebook and since then they have been living in the same flat in Sun City in Badlaguda.
Cosmas came to India in 2012 on a business visa, and stayed on illegally after his visa expired. He became a drug peddler and has links with suppliers operating from Goa, Mumbai and Chennai.
Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat inspecting the drugs seized from the Nigerians. (Photo: DC)
“He has been procuring cocaine, brown sugar and amphetamine tablets from one Gabriel and supplying to his customers through his friends John, Henry and others. On his instructions, Sangeetha was also supplying drugs,” said the Commissioner.
He said more persons may be involved and they are consulting the DRI and the Excise department for more information.
A police source said that at the instance of Cosmas, Sangeetha also got involved in human trafficking.
Police say that John Paul and Henry also came to India on business and visit visas and are staying illegally. Cosmas was selling cocaine for '20,000 per gram. He told police that he and others were given shelter by Okereke Cyril who is the president of the Associatoin of Nigerian Nationals in Hyderabad.
Cyril lives in a rented flat owned by Rasheed Khan, an assistant libr-arian at the National Institute of Rural Devel-opment, who did not inf-orm the Foreigner Re-gional Registration Offi-ce that he was renting his flat to foreign nationals.
“Though Cyril knew that his friends were into drug peddling and human trafficking, he gave them shelter. We will also take action against Mr Rasheed Khan for not following government guidelines in renting out his flat to foreign nationals,” the commissioner said.
John Paul was arrested by the Goa police on an earlier occasion for drug peddling and staying on illegally and was sentenced to jail for three months. After serving his sentence, he moved to Hyderabad.
Vijayawada woman helped gang
Palaparthi Sangeetha, a Vijayawada based former BPO employee, shifted to Hyderabad after her husband passed away.
Through a common friend, she came into contact with the Nigerians and became a drug peddler. The gang used her account to collect payments from customers. After Sangeetha and her Nigerian boyfriend were caught with cocaine and ganja and interrogated, police discovered that they and their Nigerian friends were into supplying drugs and human trafficking. Sangeetha met Ojukwu Cosmas in January 2017 through a Sudanese friend.
“At the instance of Cosmas, she started drug peddling and also got involved in supplying girls. She also opened an account in a State Bank of India branch in her name, which was used by all the gang members to collect money from clients to whom they supplied drugs and Nigerian girls. In the past six months, the account has seen a turnover of lakhs and we are verifying the details of the persons who paid them,” officials said. Police also found close to 200 contacts in each of the suspects' mobile phones and it is suspected that they could be the clients for drugs and girls.
