Nigerian drug peddler arrested, 7 gm cocaine seized

Nigerian drug peddler arrested, 7 gm cocaine seized

The Central Zone of the Commissioner’s Task Force, in coordination with the Kachiguda police, arrested a Nigerian national involved in peddling cocaine in Hyderabad. The accused, Ngwuchukwu Godwin Ifeanyi, alias Godwin, 34, was caught in possession of seven grams of cocaine while waiting to deliver it to a customer.

The accused, a native of Ogui Iweka in Enugu State, Nigeria, arrived in India in 2015 on a student visa to pursue a pharmacy course in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. However, after his visa expired in 2016, he remained in the country illegally. Influenced by his Nigerian associates involved in drug peddling, he also procured and sold cocaine.

His operations were primarily based in Mumbai, from where he sourced the drugs through contacts in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Using online financial transactions and a ‘dead drop’ method of delivery, he ensured no direct contact between the peddler and the user, making detection difficult.

A dead drop is a method of discreet exchange where one person leaves a drug at a predetermined location for another to pick up later.

This was not his first brush with the police. In May 2022, Excise and Prohibition officials, Dhoolpet, arrested him in connection with a cocaine case, following which he was remanded to judicial custody but later released on bail. In January 2023, he was again arrested by the Hayathnagar police. Due to increased police surveillance in Hyderabad, he relocated to Mumbai and continued his business from Kharghar.

On March 23, while attempting to deliver cocaine to Hyderabad after travelling from Mumbai, he was once again arrested.