Hyderabad: Rachakonda police who bust a major drug and human trafficking racket on Monday, are tracking down the main supplier of the drugs, Gabriel, also a Nigerian. He lives in Hyderabad and is a student at Nizam College. Police have written to the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) to initiate the process of deportation of the men who have been arrested for peddling drugs and were staying illegally in India.

Police have asked for seven days custody of the arrested persons. Officers investigating the case said that though all the five Nigerians who have been arrested played important roles in the drug and human trafficking activities, Gabriel supervised them and made plans for procuring and supplying ganja. It was on his instructions that the gang transported ganja from Goa by road or rail and distributed it in Hyderabad. Though their client base is very vast, the supply chain was a closed group.

The clients for the Nigerian girls which the gang supplied were Indians whose movements were monitored and they were not allowed in groups for fear that information would be leaked. Senior officials said that the arrested Nigerians had given them a tough time during interrogation and have not cooperated at all. “They would often behave very abnormally and troubled us while questioning. It was a very tough task to retrieve information from them and recover their mobile phones and other material. We found that one of them, Cosmas, has one more mobile, but he has hidden it. If we can trace that mobile, we can get deeper into the racket,” one of the officers said. The police have started analysing the details of the call data records of the nine seized mobiles.

Uppal drug peddlers held:

Rachakonda police on Tuesday arrested two drug peddlers from Uppal who became friends while serving sentences in prison and began smuggling ganja after their release. Police seized 37 kg of ganja from the possession of P. Krupender, 27, and D. Srikanth, 20. DCP, Malkajgiri, Ch. R. Umamaheswara Sarma said that Krupender was caught in an aluminium theft case while working as a mini-lorry driver and met Raju, Raj Kumar, Venkatesh and Moula Ali in jail, accused for selling ganja. They told him that they could supply him with ganja after his release and he would earn good money. Krupender got the drugs as promised after his release.

Moula Ali asked Krupender and Srikanth to come to Uppal to hand over the drugs. Police patrolling teams noticed the two moving suspiciously and intercepted their vehicle. The two men tried to run away but were caught and 20 packets of ganja weighing 37 kg was recovered from their vehicle.