A Nigerian man identified as Victor Osondu, was arrested alongside 40-year-old Esmatullah, 22-year-old Khalilullah, both from Kandahar in Afghanistan, in the latest heroin drug bust in India.
The 37-year-old Nigerian man was accused of being a member of an international drug trafficking syndicate, that allegedly smuggled heroin into India from Afghanistan and supplied it to various Indian cities as well as abroad.
Osondu was arrested in South Delhi with 5kg of heroin, worth Rs 25 crore, and 4,200 in US dollars, alongside the two Afghan men said to have smuggled more than 100kg heroin into Delhi in the past two years. They had brought 15kg of the drug in their last trip to Delhi on August 30.
“They hid the drugs in special cavities created in their luggage. The concealment of the heroin was done in such a way that luggage scanners at airports were unable detect it,” said a police officer, privy to the operation.
Members of the international drug trafficking syndicate were arrested, after a special cell team received information on September 17 that the two Afghan nationals would deliver a consignment of heroin to their Nigerian contact near a hospital in Saket the next day.
Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah who spoke in a press conference, said the Afghan men also used their compatriots who smuggled small capsules filled with heroin in their stomach while travelling to Delhi from Afghanistan.
“The two Afghan nationals revealed that they supplied the trafficked heroin to Nigerian nationals who operate the cartel from Delhi. Victor is one of the receivers of the smuggled contraband,” said Kushwah.
Hindustan Times reported that Osondu who confessed to the crime, said he came to India on business visa in 2014 for a period of six months. According to him, he did not return to his country and was lured into the drug trade by one of his Nigerian acquaintances. Victor worked for him for almost six months and later established his own network.
