Police authorities in the Indian state of Kerala have announced the arrest of 12 locals who are part of a Nigerian drug racket.
According to The New Indian Express, the racket operates out of two other states, Goer and Bengaluru.
Inspector of police, A. Ananthalal, told the website that the arrest of a Nigerian, Amamchukwu Okake, in Bengaluru, gave officials the key to penetrate the team, which has been operating in the Kochi district of Kerala for a long time.
“We are verifying certain details about the youths in custody. Their arrest will be recorded soon. We have identified a few bank accounts through which funds were transferred for drug trafficking,” the police inspector leading the team said.
The official said four youths are still on the run.
The police officer reports that during the arrests, a seizure of 19gm of MDMA worth 1 lakh (n38.1m) was seized from three youths –Yasim, Muhammad Shahad and Muhammad Riyas.
He revealed that the racket had even set up a contact point for recruits.
According to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data, 97 African nationals were arrested from South Indian states between January 2014 and June 2017. The most arrests were made from Goa (55), followed by Karnataka (20) and Tamil Nadu (10). In Kerala and Andhra, six Africans each were arrested.
