Gurugram police bust cocaine manufacturing factory in Delhi

3kg of cocaine and raw materials procured through the deep web, valued at over ₹10 crore in the international market, were seized

The Gurugram police crime branch busted a cocaine manufacturing factory running from a four-storey residential building at Ram Colony in Chhatarpur, south Delhi and arrested eight people including seven foreign nationals, police said on Friday.

The accused in police custody. (HT Photo)

At least 3kg of manufactured cocaine and raw materials procured through the deep web, estimated to be worth more than ₹10 crore in the international market, were seized from the factory, they added.

“The factory was operating for the last one-and-a-half years and was supplying narcotics across India and to other countries including Nepal,” said a police officer associated with the case.

The accused were identified as Vimal Pahadi, who is from Pokhara in Nepal, Lal Kothari, who is from Aizawl in Mizoram, and Ugochukmv John alias David, Nnajiofor Peter Nmaemeka, Onuchukwu Henry, Ojukwa Ifenya, Friday Tobias Chikwu, and Okolie Romanus, all Nigerian nationals. Only Romanus had a valid business visa as he used to frequently fly abroad while the student or the business visa of the other Nigerian nationals had expired, police said.

Romanus was the mastermind of the operation and Pahadi used to visit Gurugram to take the manufactured drugs to Nepal, said Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of Gurugram police. “Kothari, a woman, was used by the gang as a delivery agent for supplying drugs to various locations in India,” he said.

Investigators said that 42 mobile phones, three electronic weighing machines, eight packing packets, six bundles of tapes, Nigerian passports and ₹7,500 were recovered from the accused.

Pahadi was the first one to be nabbed with almost 1.17kg of drugs including 116 grams of cocaine from a hotel in Gurugram Sector 39 on Monday by a crime branch team on the basis of an intelligence input. “He was about to return to Nepal with the consignment.

He told police about Kothari after which she was nabbed from Dwarka on Wednesday, said police. John and Obinnina were nabbed from Mangalapur in Palam. On John’s disclosure, a raid was carried out at a house in Ram Colony in Chattarpur on Thursday and the factory was busted and the remaining four accused were arrested, said police.

Three Nigerian families lived in the building and no outsiders were ever visited due to which locals had no knowledge about the factory. All accused except Pahadi were sent to judicial custody on Friday. Police said John and Henry are named in drug smuggling cases previously registered in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.