One of India’s most coordinated crackdowns on an international drug network has led to the arrest of at least 50 Nigerians.
People think they are connected to a large drug-trafficking and hawala-laundering group that operates in many big cities in India.
NDTV, an Indian news source, said yesterday that the operation was led by the Delhi Police and the Telangana Police’s EAGLE section working together.
According to reports, months of accumulating information led to days of simultaneous raids throughout Delhi. This allowed authorities to break up crucial parts of a cartel that was transporting methamphetamine and cocaine across India.
The article says that investigations showed that the cartel had a large number of customers and used encrypted communication and delivery systems similar to those used by food delivery apps to make drug “dead drops” and avoid meeting in person.
“The network was very advanced. The report said, “They used layered communication channels and app-based delivery patterns to avoid being caught by law enforcement.”
Officials also said that the drug syndicate’s distribution network was linked to a sex trade ring, which helped the drugs get around and hid them.
The paper says, “Investigators have found about 2,000 people who got drugs through couriers and dead drops.”
“The authorities also found out that the sex trade was used to hide the supply and distribution of drugs, which made the cartel’s criminal activities even bigger.”
The newspaper went on to say, “The operation, which took months of gathering information, ended with the arrest of 50 Nigerians in Delhi.” The Telangana Police’s Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement worked closely with police teams from Noida, Vizag, and Gwalior to carry out this huge task.
Authorities alleged that the cartel sent its money through hawala operators. The illegal gains were turned into things like clothes and human hair, which were sent to Lagos, Nigeria, to make the drug money look like regular trade.
“Local hawala operators took the money from drug sales and turned it into things like clothes and human hair, which were then sent to Lagos, Nigeria. This effectively cleaned the illegal money.”
The report went on to say, “One identified kingpin is thought to have laundered at least ₹15 crore through these hawala channels alone.”
The article did say that the recent arrest of 50 Nigerians was a turning point in the efforts of multiple agencies to get rid of these narcotics cartels that keep coming back.
Earlier reports said that several Nigerians had been arrested in India for trafficking synthetic drugs. These arrests took place in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Goa, where foreign people were tied to methamphetamine circuits.
Indian police now saw the most recent coordinated crackdown, which led to the arrest of 50 Nigerians, as a big step toward breaking up what they called a “entrenched and continually evolving” drug supply chain.
Police claimed that the next step in the probe will be to make immigration checks stricter, keep an eye on hawala facilitators, and find the last cartel leaders who are thought to be running things from outside of India.
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