The Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested two Nigerian nationals who were allegedly in possession of commercial quantities of cocaine. The arrests come ahead of New Year’s Eve, when drugs are in demand on the party scene.
Police officials said the arrests were a joint operation between the Mumbai Crime Branch and the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC).
“We had a tip-off about Nigerian drug peddlers operating in Mumbai and after verifying and working further on the information, we laid a trap and picked up two suspects from P D’Mello Road. We found 130 gm of cocaine on them. They were placed under arrest and charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayant Naiknaware, ANC.
The accused have been identified as Jirofer Okeye (24) and Chenedu Paul (26), both Nigerian nationals, and the police are now interrogating them to trace the source of the drugs. According to the NDPS Act, possession of two grams of cocaine, a potent party drug, falls under ‘personal consumption quantity’ while 100 grams and above falls under ‘commercial quantity.’ The police said nearly 700 kg of various drugs was seized by the police in 2015.
“We have registered 17,268 cases of drug possession and peddling this year, arresting 18,659 accused and seizing 692 kg of drugs. The seized drugs include cannabis, cocaine, heroin, mephedrone and street smack,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni.
Mr Naiknaware added that cannabis, which is the biggest menace in the city’s drug scene, was being brought to the city from areas such as Nashik and Andhra Pradesh, where there are a large number of clandestine crops, and that the eastern suburbs of Mumbai had the highest cannabis addiction. Of the 692 kg of drugs seized this year, 408 kg was cannabis alone, the police said.
“Of the other drugs, cocaine comes from countries such as Columbia, Mexico and Argentina, while heroin comes from the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle,” Mr Naiknaware said. The two areas are located at the crossroads of central, south and western Asia and overlap Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
The suspects were picked up from
P D’Mello Road, 130 gm of cocaine seized from them
