An NCB team arrested two Bolivian women and seized 5 kg of cocaine. (Representational)
Mumbai:
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here has busted multiple national and international drug syndicates and seized cocaine and alprazolam worth Rs 135 crore by arresting a total of nine persons, a senior official said on Friday.
Three of the arrested persons are foreign nationals, he said.
As much as 6.9 kg of cocaine and around 200 kg of alprazolam — a restricted drug used to treat anxiety disorder — were seized during these operations.
An NCB team arrested two Bolivian women and seized 5 kg of cocaine concealed in undergarments, toothpaste, clothes, cosmetics tubes, soap, footwear and makeup kits from a hotel in Khetwadi area of south Mumbai, said NCB deputy director general Sanjay Kumar Singh.
The drugs were in the form of powder as well as liquid and paste which could be easily concealed among other articles, he said.
The team allegedly recovered 2.18 kg of cocaine from the belongings of Gloria Ilorca C, and 2.82 kg of cocaine from the baggage of Evelina. The value of the total cache was Rs 20 crore, Mr Singh said.
Both the women had been sent to India with the drugs by a gang based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the NCB official said, adding that the kingpin of the syndicate too is based in Brazil.
For every successful trip as a drug ‘mule’, the women got USD 3,000 each.
In another operation, NCB Mumbai arrested Nigerian national Paul Ikenna alias Bossman, 60, from Kharghar in neighbouring Navi Mumbai in September and recovered 2 kg of cocaine from his possession.
His questioning led to the arrest of Sakir and Sufiyan from Surat in Gujarat.
Ikenna was involved in drug trafficking for a long time, the official said.
He was first arrested in India in 1989 and discharged from the case after spending some time behind bars. He was again arrested in 2001 with a seizure of 11 kg of heroin and got convicted, Singh said, adding that he was also involved in a case detected by the NCB Bengaluru in January.
He should have been deported from the country after release from the prison, but surprisingly he remained in India, Mr Singh said.
The owner of a flat in Mira Road area near Mumbai was also arrested by the NCB for granting illegal shelter of Ikenna while a bank official was arrested for facilitating laundering of the drug money.
Ikenna was part of a Nigeria-based syndicate and involved in a barter kind of trade where tramadol, a controlled medicinal drug, was exchanged to get cocaine.
The syndicate procured cocaine from Brazil and supplied to India, the NCB official said. Ikenna allegedly supplied the syndicate with tramadol which is in huge demand in Nigeria.
In a third operation, the NCB Mumbai team intercepted a vehicle near Shirur in Pune district on October 6 and found suspicious-looking powder and some lab equipment.
Questioning of a passenger in the vehicle led the NCB to a clandestine laboratory in nearby Midagulwadi where 173.35 kg of alprazolam along with a huge stock of raw material was found. The NCB team also recovered 25.95 kg of alprazolam besides a stock of raw material from another ‘laboratory’ in Manchar in Pune district.
A man who was trying to sell alprazolam was caught in Hyderabad.
The illegally manufactured alprazolam was sold in Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, especially for mixing in toddy.
Key members of the syndicate had been identified and further investigation was in progress, Mr Singh said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)