Hyderabad: A Ghanaian national woman who came to India on a tourist visa and has been allegedly smuggling narcotic drugs like cocaine and ecstasy from Goa to the city was detained by the sleuths of Prohibition and excise department.
According to the excise officials, 33-year-old Genevieve Alando Oketch came to India from the Republic of Ghana on a tourist visa in 2016 and has been since staying in India. She has been extending her stay in India giving one reason or the other. Police officials said that her passport, which they have now seized, is valid till March 2019.
Deputy commissioner of Excise C. Vivekananda Reddy said that, “As per the instructions from her boss who was at present staying in Goa, she came to the city with the narcotic substances on Wednesday morning in a private travels.”
“Subsequently, she booked room at an OYO hotel in Somajiguda for two days. Her plan was to deliver the narcotic substances to the customers as per the directions of her boss and leave the city,” the deputy commissioner added.
But her plan was foiled. The Prohibition and Excise (P and E) officials, headed by K. Karuana, P and E inspector, district task force in Hyderabad basing on a tip-off raided the hotel and found Genevieve Alando Oketch in illegal possession of narcotic drugs in her room on Wednesday evening. The police officials arrested her and seized 50 grams of cocaine, 10 grams of ecstasy and her passport from her possession.
“We have booked a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) and further investigation is underway to trace the customers trying to procure these drugs in the city. We are also trying to zero in on the location of her boss, who was at present in Goa and detain him,” Reddy told this newspaper.
