HYDERABAD: Telangana Anti Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) on Saturday apprehended three persons, including two Nigerians, for allegedly running an international drug racket, using hawala channels. They have been identified as Ugwu Ikechukwu alias Emma, Chukwu Ogbonna alias Big Joe and a Hyderabad native, Mohammed Mateen Siddiqui.
Other accused — Divine Ebuka Suzee, Ezeonyili Franklin Uchenna, Syed Sohail Abdul Aziz, Syed Naseer Ahmed, Mohd Awaiz, Mohd Mateen, Syed Yousuf Haq, Anand Jain, Shantilal Suresh Kumar Jain and Uttam Jain — are absconding.
TGANB Director Sandeep Shandilya stated that three months ago, a special team was formed to break the hawala chain between the accused persons and identify the main accused. “We waited for several days, and we were able to track the transactions from customers to the kingpin,” he said.
A release stated that last year, a Nigerian woman, who was coming to Hyderabad from Delhi, was arrested with 200 grams of cocaine. Her arrest triggered suspicion that it might be the tip of the iceberg. Officials have been gathering information on suppliers, peddlers, customers and main handlers.
After scrutinising the drug trade, the TGANB observed that drug peddlers were a very small part of the enormous drug trade and catching them would not yield any positive outcome.
The officials analysed several inputs and identified the main accused, Ebuka Suzee, who regulated the trade from Hyderabad, Bengaluru after procuring drugs from other countries.
It was observed that Big Joe and Emma were close associates of Ebuka. They delivered drugs to consumers through a wide network of small peddlers. Mateen, proprietor of Fine Multipurpose Service in Hyderabad, worked with them on a commission basis. He shared his bank details with Emma, who shared them with consumers. After the money was received, Mateen would hand over the cash to Emma after taking his commission.
Crafty biz
The release stated that the accused persons also have their clients in the USA. Emma developed friendships with US women through dating sites and social media channels and used their IDs to open bank accounts here.
To receive the money from them, Mateen contacted Anand Jain, a Goyam Forex employee, who provided the US bank accounts and Zelle Pay accounts of his relatives staying in the US. After receiving the money from consumers, the women directly transferred the money to those accounts.
Anand would contact his relatives and collect the money from them, and transfer it to Mateen, who handed over cash to Emma. Since everyone knew that money was diverted through an illegal source, they took double the commission.