HYDERABAD: The city police, while initiating deportation procedures against four Nigerian nationals caught recently on charges of drug peddling here, were in for a shocker when they found that the passports of the accused were fake. This was revealed when the Foreign Regional Registration Office in Hyderabad informed the same to the city police in a written communication.
The investigators initially thought the accused have taken two passports by producing fictitious certificates in their country, but later it was found that the fake passports were made in India, the officer said.
During an anti-narcotic cell and city task force-led operation in August this year, the seven Nigerian nationals of an international drug racket were busted.
The police had seized 73 grams of cocaine and five grams of brown sugar, along with laptops and 15 mobile phones.
The passports of the Nigerians were also seized by the police.
Against four among the accused, the city police imposed Preventive Detention Act, in
September, for repeatedly indulging in the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act cases.
They (Ugochukwu Solomon Ubabuko alias Ugo, Obiora Chukwuemeka Peter, Ezeh Christian Chuku alias David and Uzor Promise Chukuwudi) had come to India on business visa, but they joined the existing network of operatives from Goa and supplied drugs in metropolitan cities.
“The arrested persons have made fake Nigerian passports in India and have been using them to cheat the police,” said Avinash Mohanty, deputy commissioner (CCS). Police are investigating the origin of these fake passports.