GUWAHATI:
The existence of an active drugs cartel operating between Guwahati and Shillong has come to light after two Nigerian nationals and a resident of Shillong were recently arrested.
Sources in the Assam police said that drug traffickers enter Meghalaya through the Indo-Bangladesh border in Dawki, the police sources added that they bring contraband from the neighbouring country to supply in Shillong and Guwahati.
The modus operandi came to light after Crime Branch of Guwahati police arrested Soni Sonar, a Shillong-based driver on February 13, after his phone number was found in the call records of two Nigerians – Ifeanyi Charles Okuakaj and Emmanuel Enuma Dike, whom the police had arrested with 20 gm of cocaine at the Guwahati Railway Station on Monday.
Acting on Sonar’s information, the police then picked up his employee and a reputed Shillong-based businessman, Prateek Agarwal, on February 15. During interrogation, he confessed that he had asked Sonar to collect a “parcel” from the arrested Nigerians in the railway station. “Such Nigerian nationals enter India every 15 alternate days,” Prateek Agarwal had reportedly informed the police. According to the police, Sonar was a local guide for the Nigerians and was helping them in every step to smuggle the drugs.
During a few more raids in Shillong on February 15, the police also picked up one Syntherian Marak for interrogation in connection with the case but was allowed to go after interrogation. The two Nigerians, Sonar and Prateek were produced before a Chief Judicial Magistrate in Guwahati. Prateek, however, wasn’t arrested and let go after recording his statement under the Section 164 of IPC.
According to sources, the police now is looking for two businessmen – Pulkeet Agarwal and Ayush Agarwal, who have been reportedly absconding since their name came up in connection to the case. The police are also on a lookout for a Nigerian girl involved in the nexus, sources said.
The arrests explicitly indicated the presence of a “cartel smuggling cocaine to Guwahati and Shillong”, sources in the police informed, adding that the police are making a list of well-to-do people in Shillong and Guwahati who may have links with cross-border drugs trafficking racket. The police are likely to launch an operation to unearth more information within a day or two, sources added.