Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau busts international drug racket; Two Nigerians, forex agent arrested in Hyderabad
The arrested individuals have been identified as Ugwu Ikechukwu alias Emma and Chukwu Ogbonna alias Big Joe — both Nigerian nationals residing in Hyderabad and involved in drug peddling — along with Mohd Mateen Siddiqui, a money transfer agent based in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) along to Cyberabad Police have busted a drug racket and arrested two Nigerians and a forex agent by breaking the money trail and preventing money laundering of drug money in Upparpally on Saturday. Officials seized 15 grams of Cocaine, 50 grams of MDMA and cash of Rs 45,000.
The arrested persons are Ugwu Ikechukwu alias Emma, Chukwu Ogbonna alias Big Joe both drug peddlers from Nigeria staying in Hyderabad and Mohd Mateen Siddiqui, money transfer agent from Hyderabad.
The absconding suspects are Divine Ebuka Suzee, Ezeonyili Franklin Uchenna, Syed Sohail Abdul Aziz, Syed Naseer Ahmed, Mohd Awaiz, Mohd Mateen, Syed Yousuf Haq, Anand Jain, Shantilal Suresh Kumar Jain and Uttam Jain.
According to the TGANB officials, the kingpin of this racket Ebuka Suzee earlier came to India on Tourist Visa and developed his base of supplying drugs in Hyderabad and Bengaluru assisted by his brother
Ezeonyili Franklin Uchenna. During this period, he came into contact with other suspects and continued drug business in India and the US.
“To get back the payments made by the US customers, on the instructions of Ebuka Suzee, Emma trapped single women from the US and took their bank account and credit card numbers and gave them to the customers in US who used to deposit the money towards drug purchase in their accounts,” said Sandeep Shandilya, Director TGANB.
Later, Mateen provided some bank accounts of Indians staying in the US and money was transferred into them.
Money Trail:
For the drug supplies in Hyderabad, Ebuka never used to directly take money from the consumers. On his advice Emma developed friendship with Mateen, who supplied bank accounts to the consumers and after they deposit the money in that account, Mateen will pay in cash to Emma after deducting his commission.
For the drug sales in the US on the advice of Ebuka, Emma developed friendship with US women through dating sites and social media channels targeting mainly divorced women. Later he will collect the bank and credit card details of these US women and give them to Ebuka. After the money is deposited by the US customers in the bank accounts of US women, they transfer it through money transfer services.
When the money is huge i.e, more than 2500 dollars it is not possible to send it through money transfer services. So, on the request of Emma, Mateen contacted Anand Jain and provided US Bank accounts of Indians staying in the US.
Diversion of money to Nigeria
After collecting the money from Mateen and Naseer, Emma will hand it over to Big Joe and Big Joe will take that money to Mumbai and hand it over to one Nwabueze Kenechukwu Victor. Daniel and Malik know some Nigerian businessmen doing clothes business, to whom the money is transferred.
“This is how the money which is earned by the drug sales is illegally diverted through different sources and everyone in this chain including the forex agents take their commission knowing it is illegal to receive money from US through different channels,” Shandilya said.
Efforts by TGANB
When this entire chain of operation was understood by the TGANB personnel, it became important to gather evidence against them, so that when they are caught, they do not escape the dragnet of law. Many times, TGANB has placed decoy orders with the peddlers and deposit money in the bank account details given by the peddlers, but did not nab the drug delivery persons, so that they can reach the master of these operations. After two or three such attempts, TGANB received credible information the latest racket was busted.
Appeal to the public and money service agents:
The police requested house owners, hotels, money service agents, forex trade agents, SIM card retailers and citizens to be alert and inform the police if you observe any suspicious activities in your neighbourhood, especially by foreigners.
Importance of updating FSIS for foreign nationals:
As of now 371 foreign students are reported to be overstaying their visas in Telangana and 18,298 foreign students’ details are missing from the FSIS due to lack of updates from educational institutions.
Accurate records are essential for compliance with regulations and it is mandatory for all educational institutions, hospitals, and relevant entities to regularly update the exit status of foreign nationals.
