Gujarat’s State Monitoring Cell (SMC) seized Rs 1.49 crore worth of imported cocaine from a Nigerian woman peddler, a statement issued by the agency on Wednesday said.
She was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Navsari, and was detained in SMC custody for seven days until February 25 when she was arraigned.
This is the first registered case for the SMC police station, which began operations on January 31 this year.
To tackle organised crime and drug rackets more effectively, the Gujarat Home department notified the setting up of the station on January 2.
Margret Ene Mgbudom (37), a resident of Meera Road in Mumbai, was booked under different sections of the NDPS Act after police received a tip-off on Tuesday and frisked her car from Maharashtra during a surveillance drive on the highway.
A forensic analysis confirmed the seized contraband to be 149.51 grammes of cocaine.
The SMC arrested her on the spot, while the police seized her passport, which states that she landed in India at the Delhi International Airport on August 7 last year.
She had earlier visited India on several occasions.
SMC police inspector V C Jadeja told The Indian Express, “After primary interrogation, she disclosed that the drug is owned by a person named Elder in Nigeria. She got the drug from one Emmanuel of Mumbai, to get it delivered to a person in Surat. She hired a car from Mumbai and was on her way to Surat.”
Jadeja added, “We suspect that an international drug cartel is active in India and it is operated from Nigeria. The cocaine might have come from Nigeria through peddlers but it is the local members of the cartel in India who identify the customers and sell it at high rates.”
The inspector added, “She (Mgbudom) had made around 10 to 12 trips from Mumbai to Surat to deliver over the last few years. Once the transporter carrying drugs reaches Surat, she gets a location from cartel member Emmanuel (of Nigerian origin) who is based in Mumbai. We have checked her passport and found that she made multiple visits to India in 2021, 2022, and 2024. We will dig out other members of the drug cartel who are active in India.”
[The Indian Express]
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