The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday arrested 3 Nigerian members of an International Drug Racket who were allegedly planning to launder money in connivance with a US National and three Indians- one of them a banker.

They recovered 255 grams of cocaine, 350 grams of heroin, and 100 grams methamphetamine — together worth lots of crore in the international market.

The deputy director of NCB, General Rajesh Nandan Srivastav said the arrests came after following up a lead on International rackets involved in smuggling and sale of drugs and money laundering activities.

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According to the Zonal Director of NCB’s Delhi unit ‘KPS Malhotra’, the NCB officials zeroed in on these 3 Nigerian nationals (Butter Nnamani, Eze Naduka Bonaventure, and Kelvin Mansary alias Ben) living in Delhi and Gurugram. They were caught on different operations on March 3 and 4.

During the interrogation with Ben, he told the NCB officials that he was a pointsman for sale of drugs collecting from Nnamani and Naduka. It was discovered that Ben had a fake passport and no valid document for his stay in India. They had involvement in money laundering and names of some of their associates were also mentioned; the name of a south Delhi-based real estate company owner who regularly bought drugs from these foreigners was also mentioned.

 “The businessman’s interrogation revealed that they were planning to get 16 crore transferred to the USA illegally. A man named Vishal, who is lodged in a Delhi jail on murder charges, and a US national, were involved in the planning. They had access to some dormant accounts in which huge amounts were parked. According to their plan, they wanted to transfer the money from the dormant accounts to various new accounts,” Srivastav said.

“The US national was in Delhi in December and January and had meetings with a bank official, who agreed to arrange the necessary clearance for the illegal transfer of funds. He was paid 10 Lakh as token money. The entire planning was done by Vishal,” Srivastav said, adding that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is being roped in for acting on the money laundering information.