Kasaragod: Bekal police, investigating the seizure of 153 g MDMA in April, have arrested a Nigerian woman from Bengaluru.
They suspect she could be the 'chief executive' of a major racket supplying the synthetic party drug to Kasaragod.
The woman identified as Hafsa Rihanath Usman alias Blessing Joy was picked up from Bengaluru by Bekal DySP Sunil Kumar C K.
A Kasaragod court remanded her in judicial custody on Wednesday.
"Over past two years and a half, Kasaragod police seized commercial quantities of MDMA 35 times. We suspect the contraband came from Hafsa in most of these cases," said district police chief Vaibhav Saxena.
"She is a big fish. You can say she is the chief executive of her racket," he said.
Hafsa reportedly told police that she was 22 years of age and came to Bengaluru on a student visa in January 2022. But 'conveniently' lost her passport, said the officer.
"We neither believe her age nor her date of arrival," Saxena said.
She did come to India on a one-year student visa but did not join any college, according to the police. If she had lost her passport, she did not report it, according to Saxena.
Kasaragod police had pulled out the statement of a bank account allegedly linked to Hafsa . "We checked the transactions for three months and found Rs 68 -70 lakh was being credited to the account every month," the officer revealed.
In a year, it adds up to a whopping Rs 8.4 crore.
The district police chief said his team had conclusive evidence to put Hafsa behind bars for at least 10 years.
Police follow digital, money trails
On April 23, Bekal Police arrested four persons, including a married couple, with 150 g of MDMA crystals in possession, known in the streets as 'molly'. It was a routine vehicle check at Pallam near Udma; they were coming from Bengaluru in a Swift car, said Saxena.
The arrested persons were Aboobacker M A (37) and Ameena Azra (23) of Thekkil village in Kasaragod, Wasim A K (32) and Suraj P S (31), residents of Bengaluru.
Police had impounded their car.
Legally, 0.5 g of psychotropic drugs such as MDMA, scientifically called 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, is considered a small quantity.
If convicted of possessing a small quantity, the accused would get a rigorous imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of up to Rs 10,000 or both.
Anything above 10 g of the psychotropic drug is considered commercial quantity; if convicted, the four accused would face rigorous imprisonment between 10 and 20 years alongside a fine of Rs 1-2 lakh under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Lab tests found the 'molly' seized from the four persons was of fairly high quality. "When they buy in bulk, they pay around Rs 800-1,000 for a gram. When it reaches Kasaragod, they retail it for Rs 4,000-10,000/g depending on the quality," said the officer.
One gram of MDMA crystals can be turned into 10 'stamps', which the users lick to feel 'high'. "Half a gram of good quality MDMA can kill a person with pre-existing health conditions," said Saxena, who's also a qualified medical doctor.
During the investigation, Bekal DySP Sunil Kumar found that Aboobacker had transferred Rs 1 lakh to a bank account using Paytm mobile payment app.
"Aboobacker was in touch with Hafsa over WhatsApp. After transferring the money, he would sent her a screenshot of the transaction receipt. Only then, she releases the MDMA," said the district police chief.
But the DySP found that the SIM used by Hafsa to register her WhatsApp account was procured using a fake ID card and address.
For instance, she used the SIM belonging to one Ruby Devi, a fake identity, only to open a WhatsApp account. She then accesses WhatsApp using WiFi.
"If we followed the address, we would have hit a dead end," said Saxena.
Soon after, Sunil Kumar used 'advanced cyber tools' and found that Hafsa had been using another SIM card. He tracked the SIM to a location at Yelahanka in Bengaluru and sent a team to pick her up.
"The team found that there were more than a thousand apartments at the location ," the officer said. The team returned.
Further on, Sunil Kumar and another officer from Bekal went to Bengaluru. With the help of Bengaluru police, they zeroed in on her flat.
Police found that Hafsa lived alone; the house was clean. They did not find any contraband in the house. "But we had enough digital evidence of her involvement to arrest her," Saxena said.
According to the police, Hafsa - the daughter of a school teacher in Lagos - was a member of the four-member Nigerian gang involved in large-scale drug trafficking in India. One of her partners operated out of Delhi, they said.
"She is the key person in the ring. They would not be able to operate without her," he said.
She manages the 'clients' or peddlers, places orders with their meth-making units in Goa and Bengaluru, and ensures the money reaches the gang's bank accounts. "She is like their chief executive. She has a trove of information," the Kasaragod police chief said.
According to Saxena, Hafsa's arrest would dry up the drug trafficking along Bengaluru-Mangaluru-Kasaragod route, at least for the time being.
