Drugs and the Nigerian connection

Nigerians are fast becoming an important link in the smuggling of drugs from Pakistan through the border. This has come to the surface with the arrest of two Nigerian nationals, Emeka Ugo and Ugba Odili, close to the border in Amritsar on Sunday. The police seized 5kg of heroin from them.

Their interrogation revealed they had connections in Arab countries. But it is not known who brought the consignment from the Indo-Pak border and delivered it to them. Emeka is doing a computer course in Chandigarh and has been living here for the past year. His accomplice arrived in India only recently.

DNA had reported earlier that drugs were being smuggled from Pakistan through barbed fences along the border in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

Jalandhar and Amritsar are the nodal cities from where the smuggled consignment is dispatched to Delhi or other parts of the country.

Police believe the Nigerians, mostly students in Chandigarh, besides consuming the drug, also facilitate its transportation as it helps them earn money in dollars.

There are about 500 Nigerians in Chandigarh. Over a 100 of them are neither students nor professionals. Most of them are in constant touch with the smugglers.

A senior official said they mostly befriend local girls and use them for transporting consignments to Delhi or Mumbai.

Their nexus with smugglers was detected some time back when a Nigerian, who had procured a consignment of heroin from Chandigarh, was apprehended in Delhi.