HYDERABAD: Police arrested four drug peddlers including one who operates across countries on Saturday and seized Rs 10 lakh worth of cocaine and MDMA from their possession. West Zone DCP Joel Davis said: “We have arrested a Nigerian national Mohammed Toiru Bakari, Mumbai native Apurva Mataprasad Upadhyay and Ajay Kumar Choupal on Saturday and Friday and seized Rs 5 lakh worth of the contraband.
The police also arrested one Mohammad Alikm Khan and recovered from him drugs which are worth Rs 5 lakh. Bakari, arrested in the first case, came to India in 2013 stayed back in Mumbai even after his visa had expired. He then began working as a chef in a restaurant where he met the duo and came to know about the demand for drugs and moved to Pune.
Bakari and the other two got together and began selling drugs in Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad for the last five years. Bakari confessed to the police that his source of supply of drugs is another international peddler based in Nigeria. It is suspected that he is also connected to another international peddler Tony who was arrested by Punjagutta police in January 2022.
Database of customers
Police came to know that Nigerians have a database of the clients and they drop a message ‘Happy Weekend’. The consumers who want to buy drugs respond, specifying the quantity they need.
So far, five consumers have been identified who apparently are businessmen. The police said they would trace and arrest them at the earliest.
In the second case, Golconda police apprehended Mohammad Alim Khan, a native of Uttar Pradesh who operates from Mumbai. The police recovered Rs 5 lakh worth of MDMA from his possession. According to the sources, Alim who lives in Mumbai identifies consumers and supplies drugs to them in Hyderabad. He travels in buses with small quantities of drugs and delivers them to his clients personally.
‘Happy Weekend’, the code message
On receiving a message which says ‘Happy Weekend’ from the suppliers, consumers who are looking to buy drugs would respond and specify the quantity they require. This client database is available with the Nigerian peddlers