39 Nigerians arrested, drugs worth ₹5 crore seized in Navi Mumbai

Navi Mumbai police arrested 36 Nigerians and seized drugs worth over ₹5 crore in a crackdown on drug trafficking in the city.

Navi Mumbai

Navi Mumbai Police in DCP Zone 1 raid at Juhugaon , Vashi in Navi Mumbai, India, on Friday, September 1, 2023. (Photo by ) (Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

In the first ever crackdown on the Nigerians in Navi Mumbai on a massive level, the Navi Mumbai police on Saturday arrested 36 of the 75 detained on Friday and seized drugs valued at more than ₹Five crore.

Of the 36 arrested, 14 were found to be with the possession of the contraband, 11 with invalid passport and Visa, three with Leave India Notice and eight others facing ongoing cases. Various quantities of drugs worth ₹5 crore were seized from the 14 Nigerians which include men as well as women.

The police had mobilised 600 personnel for the raids including the police teams, fire brigade and ambulance personnel, anticipating a back lash from the Nigerians. However, the raid went ahead smoothly without any scuffle.

“We had the fire team with us at all six locations, but we did not have to use their services. The biggest challenge was to have the raid started simultaneously and that we could achieve with proper coordination and homework that the team had been doing for past two months,” assistant commissioner of police (crime branch) Gajanan Rathod said. The team of police had been mapping the location of Nigerians in each node with the help of local police and the narcotics department. “This raid was not just to curb the drug menace, but to act as a deterrent and send out a signal to the wrong doers that we are going to come down heavily on the drug menace in the city,” he added.

The police seized MD, Cocaine and Tramadol Hydrochloride strips worth ₹4.26 crore from a hideout in Sector 27 of Kharghar and arrested seven people. They found nine Nigerians staying without calid documents at sector 35 of Kharghar and Phase I of Taloja.

At Bonkode in Koparkhairane, the police found 450 gram Cocaine and 100 gram MD worth ₹45 lakh and ₹10 lakh respectively from one person each. At Juhu gaon in Vashi, the police found 120-gram Cocaine worth ₹12 lakh from five women occupants. “This is not going to be the last operation and we would continue having such drives whenever they are needed,” Rathod added.