Three foreign nationals were arrested in separate operations; a key supplier caught with 1,300 grams of MDMA
Hyderabad: Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (HNEW) and city police arrested three foreign nationals in separate operations and seized 1,300 grams of MDMA worth Rs 1.60 crore from one of the arrested. While one of them was planning to sell NDPS drugs in the city, the two others were arrested to prevent him from indulging in undesirable activities detrimental to national security.
One suspect, Oliver Ugochukwu, 44, a Nigerian national from Mumbai, was caught with the MDMA. During interrogation, he admitted to receiving the drugs from a supplier, Oyibo, in Mumbai and was awaiting further instructions in Hyderabad when arrested. Oliver, who dropped out of school in Nigeria, arrived in India on a business visa in 2009 but overstayed after its expiry. In 2013, he was jailed for nearly six years in Delhi for heroin possession. After his release in 2019, he moved to Mumbai and supplied MDMA to Nigerians in Mumbai and Bengaluru, procuring it for Rs 300 per gram and selling it for Rs 600 to Rs 1,000, said Y.V.S. Sudheendra, DCP task force and H-NEW, in a press meet on Wednesday.
In another operation, police arrested Moussa Camara, alias Romeo, 38, a Guinea national residing in Bengaluru. Moussa entered India in 2020 on a medical visa but was arrested at Mumbai airport for carrying cocaine and jailed for six months. After his release, he developed ties with Nigerian drug suppliers and moved to Bengaluru in 2024, peddling drugs there and in Hyderabad. Arrested in Tolichowki, he confessed to planning an NDPS drug business in Hyderabad. He supplied drugs to Sudanese national Mohammed Abdul Rehman Osman, who distributed them via dead drops, collecting payments through mule accounts on GPay and PhonePe. Police seized Moussa’s phone and handed him over to Humayunnagar police.
A third suspect, Ikechukwu Sylvester Mbah, 40, a Nigerian national, was arrested to prevent activities harmful to national security. He came to India in 2012 on a business visa, initially trading clothes. In 2019, he was jailed in Navi Mumbai for a passport-related offense. After release, he observed fellow Nigerians involved in illegal activities. Further investigations are underway.
