Mumbai: NCB seizes drugs worth Rs 135 crore, nine persons including three foreigners held

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in this region has successfully dismantled various national and international drug networks, apprehending a total of nine individuals and confiscating cocaine and alprazolam valued at Rs 135 crore, according to a senior official's statement on Friday. Among the arrestees, three are foreign nationals. These operations resulted in the seizure of approximately 6.9 kg of cocaine and around 200 kg of alprazolam, a controlled substance primarily employed for anxiety disorder treatment.

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, 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.

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.

The NCB also arrested the owner of a residence in the Mira Road vicinity near Mumbai for providing illicit accommodation to Ikenna, while a bank official was apprehended for aiding in the money laundering associated with drug transactions. Ikenna was affiliated with a Nigeria-based syndicate, participating in a form of exchange trade where tramadol, a regulated medicinal substance, was swapped to acquire cocaine.

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.