Haul of shame as a Nigerian, Ifeanyi Obi, is arrested with drugs worth Rs 3 crore ($400k) in Goa’s (India) ‘biggest ever’ drug haul
The Nigerian Ifeanyi Pascal Obi, was previously booked for overstaying.
PANAJI: In the biggest drug haul in recent times, Goa police on Tuesday arrested a Nigerian national with various narcotic drugs worth Rs 3 crore ($400,000) from Candolim in North Goa.
During the raid police seized 1kg cocaine, 2kg MDMA, 750g amphetamines, 106g charas, 1.3 kg ganja and Rs 2 lakh cash.
“This is the biggest, single drugs seizure by Goa police in recent times,” SP North Utkrisht Prasoon along with Calangute PI Nolasco Raposo told reporters.
In 2012, Calangute police had booked the accused Ifeanyi Pascoel Obi alias Alex, 34, for possessing cocaine and the case is pending trial. Prior to that, in 2011, Obi was arrested by Calangute police for overstaying.
“The raid was conducted by Raposo following a tip-off about the presence of the accused in a building at Ximer in Candolim,” Prasoon said.
The accused has been charged under various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Police said it is investigating Obi’s heirachy in the drug world.
“We will be also be investigating to find out if the room from where the drugs were seized was rented out after obtaining required documents from the tenant,” Prasoon said.
Police are further to determine if the accused was overstaying. “He did not have any valid documents at the time of the arrest,” Prasoon said.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant who has been vocal about his government’s “no tolerance to drugs” congratulated Goa police for the major drug bust. “I congratulate Goa police for a significant drug seizure and an arrest in Calangute today. We remain committed to fight and eradicate this evil from our state,” Sawant tweeted later in the day.
IGP Jaspal Singh also congratulated the team for their wonderful job. “The team will be suitably rewarded,” he said.
Further investigation is in progress under the supervision of SP North and SDPO, Porvorim, Edwin Colaco.
PSIs Laxi Amonkar and Pragati Malik, police constables Vinay Srivastav, Shasank Sakhalkar, Mhableshwar Sawant, Suresh Naik, Smital Bandekar, Sanjyot Kerkar, Govind Fatnlk, Rajesh Parsekar, Manoj Naik, Mahendra Chari, Babuso Salgaonkar, Yogesh Kholkar, Laxman Mandrekar, Dinesh Morajkar and Shailesh Gadekar were part of the raiding team
