CHENNAI: Acting on a tip-off, sleuths from the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) swooped in at a house in Ennore and seized 190 grams of cocaine from the possession of a Nigerian national.
This is the second such arrest in Chennai this year involving an African national, causing concern among officials that foreigners were trafficking and peddling hard drugs in the metro and other cities in the country. What has added to their alarm is that the list of clients for both the peddlers were found to be almost same, indicating that the network remained intact despite such arrests.
On Wednesday, NCB officials raided the house in Ennore where Izuoba Augustine Chibuike (35), of Nigeria stayed. He had 190 gm of cocaine on him, worth nearly 20 lakhs on the streets.
Chibuike reportedly confessed that he had been making trips between Mumbai and Chennai for the past three months to ferry and supply the drug here.
“He has come on a business visa which is valid for three more months. It is not his first visit; he has confessed that he has been on trips to Chennai every weekend ever since he landed in the city,” said Prem Anand Sinha, Zonal Director, NCB.
Sources said the perusal of his call records revealed that his clientele were either executives drawing fat salaries or people with flourishing business in the city.
His clients would come to a secluded spot decided by the drug peddler where the transaction would take place. The drug was mostly being sold at `5,000 - `6,000 per gram. The price vary based on the purity.
Chibuike was the second African national to be arrested on charges of drug peddling recently. In the second week of February, the NCB officials had arrested a Ghana national, Kuami Ebeniser. Much to the alarm of the officials, the two had similar list of clients.
According to an official, it appeared that the African nationals were connected to the cartels.
“These cartels now reach up to this city where the drug is getting popular among those partying all night,” the official added.