His arrest was in connection with a case registered by Cheranalloor police after 18g of methamphetamine was recovered from a suspicious package
His arrest was in connection with a case registered by Cheranalloor police after 18g of methamphetamine was recovered from a suspicious package
The Kochi City police have arrested from Bengaluru, a man accused of being a key figure of an inter-State drug racket.
The arrested was identified as Amal Nair, 38, of Panampilly Nagar. His arrest was in connection with a case registered by Cheranalloor police after 18g of Methamphetamine, a recreational drug affecting the central nervous system, was recovered from a suspicious courier with a fake address delivered at a major courier agency on August 18.
The accused allegedly used to dispatch drugs by courier from Bengaluru to various places in Kerala. The investigation team nabbed him from a luxurious apartment in Electronic City in Bengaluru.
Couriers containing drugs were dispatched to Kerala with fake addresses. The parcels were then taken delivery by the parties concerned directly from courier agencies using mobile number and tracking id.
In the instant case, the courier agency grew suspicious about the parcel and alerted the police. Subsequently, the Cheranalloor police arrested a man with the help of CCTV visuals from the courier agency and by tracking the mobile number given on the parcel.
The man arrested, Ajmal, 38, of Kayankulam turned out to be a drug dealer and had several cases against him, His interrogation led to the arrest of Sameer, 36, of Padanna in Kasargod, who had accompanied Ajmal to take delivery of the courier. Sameer was in jail for the last one-and-a-half year on a NDPS case registered by Central police and was released just two months back.
These arrests led to Amal who allegedly couriered the drugs to them for trade from Bengaluru. Incidentally, he and wife were interrogated by the city police in another case registered in connection with alleged drug dealings in No 18 hotel in Fort Kochi. The accused used to run an eatery by the name ‘Pappadavada” in the city. Police claimed that the accused confessed to have turned to drug trade following the financial liabilities from running the eatery, which had long since closed.
Police claimed that several parcels containing drugs that was to be couriered to various places in Kerala were also seized. Police have received reports that the accused used to organise night parties in various hotels in Bengaluru as a smokescreen for drug deals.
He is also suspected to have supplied drugs to various night parties organised in many hotels in Kochi city. Police have launched investigation into the recipients of such couriers.
Probe is also underway to track down a Bengaluru-based Nigerian native who is suspected to be the source of the drugs. The foreigner reportedly has links with international drug racket, police said.
The investigation was expanded to Bengaluru based on a tip-off received by C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City), that drugs were being couriered to Kochi city from various States in India.
The probe was led by Deputy Commissioner S. Sasidharan and Ernakulam Assistant Commissioner C. Jayakumar. A team comprising of Cheranalloor inspector K.G. Vipinkumar, sub inspectors Thomas A.X and Vijayakumar, assistant sub inspector Binu K.B; senior civil police officers Cighosh, Naseer, Aneesh, Dinoop; and civil police officer Vishal made the arrest.
