A gang of five Nigerians and a woman from Vijayawada were held by sleuths of the Rachakonda SOT for indulging in drugs and human trafficking.
A gang of five Nigerians and a woman from Vijayawada were held by sleuths of the Rachakonda SOT for indulging in drugs and human trafficking.
The officers also seized 20 gram cocaine, 12 gram brown sugar, 39.8 gram amphetamine tablets and pieces, 1.675 kg ganja, three laptops, cash of Rs 2,04,000, six passports, two Honda Activa vehicles and nine mobile phones from their possession.
On a tip-off, the Rachakonda cops, in a joint operation with the L B Nagar and Jawahar Nagar police, apprehended the six for indulging in procuring drugs and supplying them to their customers.
The accused were identified as Palaparthi Sangeetha, 35, a Christian, native of Sai Model Village, Ramavarapupadu, Vijayawada, and residing at Bandlaguda in Hyderabad; John Okorie, Nigerian, a student of Nizam College, residing at Yapral; Ojukwu Cosmas; Okereke Cyril Anezi, a B Com student (Nizam College); John Paul Oneybuchi; and Ogunka Henry Okechukwu, all illegally staying in Yapral in Medchal district.
According to the Rachakonda Police Commissioner, Sangeetha and John Okorie were standing at the L B Nagar bus stop, and upon physical searching, were found to be in possession of cocaine (Sangeetha) and ganja (Okorie). They were then taken into custody.
During questioning, Sangeetha disclosed that she had come into contact with a Nigerian drug peddling gang operating in Hyderabad in January this year through a friend and was residing in Bandlaguda. Ojukwu Cosmas was having connections with drug peddlers operating at Goa, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. He was procuring cocaine, brown sugar and amphetamine tablets from a Gabriel and supplying them through Okerie, Okechukwu and others to their customers.
Sangeetha also opened an SBI account in her name as instructed by Cosmas. She has all the drug-related transactions reflecting in her account.
Okorie told the police that Oneybuchi and Okechukwu regularly visited his house. The SOT teams then proceeded to Sun City to the house of Cosmas and apprehended him and seized cocaine, brown sugar, amphetamine tablets, a laptop, cash of Rs 1,54,000, three mobile phones and one Active from his possession.
Cosmas told the police that he purchased drugs from Gabriel, brought them to Hyderabad and secretly supplied them to Oneybuchi, Okechukwu and his girlfriend Sangeetha for selling. He was selling cocaine and brown sugar for Rs 20,000 per gram.
He also disclosed that the Nigerians indulging in drug trafficking were being provided shelter by an Okereke Cyril in Lakshmi Nagar Colony, Yapral, who is also the president for the Nigerians' Association in Hyderabad. All the drug traffickers had taken shelter in his house due to fear of being apprehended by the police.
The police then raided the hideout of Cyril in Yapral and apprehended Oneybuchi and Okechukwu.