The arrest of Nigerian citizen Folarin Abdulazees Andoyi (50) last month with cocaine worth Rs 2.16 crore is seen as the biggest achievement of the Pune policeтАЩs anti-narcotics cell in 2022.
Police said Andoyi had been active in the cocaine trade for over a decade and arrested twice before he was arrested from a car on the Undri-Mantarwadi road in Pune on December 9 last year. Police recovered 1.81 kg of cocaine estimated at Rs 2,16,20,000.
Police found that his wifeтАФidentified as Lucy, a native of ManipurтАФwas also involved in the crime and the couple are lodged in the Yerwada Central Prison.
Senior police inspector Vinayak Gaikwad of the anti-narcotics cell said, тАЬAndoyi is basically a mechanical engineer who came to India from Nigeria in 2010 on a business visa for work. He landed in Mumbai. The investigation revealed that he worked with private establishments till 2010. But then he started feeling that the income was not enough for fulfilling his needsтАЭ.
Gaikwad said that Andoyi then came in contact with another Nigerian involved in the narcotics trade. тАЬThis Nigerian national was deported by police. However, before leaving India, he handed over his contacts in the drug syndicate to Andoyi. Using these contacts, Andoyi got into the cocaine racket.тАЭ
тАЬAndoyi was first arrested by the customs department in Mumbai in 2014 with cocaine. He was later released on bailтАж. We got to know he had been married twice in the past to women from his country. But around 2018, he got married to an Indian woman, Lucy hailing from Manipur. He continued to work with drug racketeers,тАЭ said Gaikwad.
тАЬIn 2019, the Pune city police arrested him with quite a big quantity of cocaine. He was released on bail last year. As we got to know that he had again become active, our team started zeroing in on him,тАЭ the police officer said.
Andoyi was arrested from a residential society in the Undri area last month. тАЬAn investigation of his cell phone details and other information revealed that his wife was also involved in the crime. Her phone and bank account were used for the drugs trade. So we arrested her,тАЭ the officer added.
Police said that Andoyi had procured cocaine from a Nigerian woman living in Thane. A search is on for this woman suspected to be an important link in the cocaine racket in India, they added.
Gaikwad said that Andoyi would bring cocaine to Pune from his contacts in Thane and Mumbai. тАЬHe then sold the contraband to the drug peddlers in Pune. These drug peddlers further sold the cocaine in small packets to their customers in the city,тАЭ said the inspector.
In 2022, 94 arrests and seizure of Rs 5.37-cr drugs
The anti-narcotics cell seized illegal drugs worth Rs 5.37 crore from 94 people arrested from January 1 to December 31, 2022. Seven people including Andoyi were held in four cases and cocaine worth Rs 2,64,96,650 was seized from them. Police arrested 29 people for selling mephedrone in 19 cases and recovered Rs 1.86 croreтАЩs worth of the drug from them. Forty-six people were arrested with marijuana in 39 cases, six people with opium in two cases, two people with brown sugar in as many cases and one person with MDMA worth Rs 1.1 lakh. In other cases, some people were arrested for selling charas and poppies.
Pune city has a large number of foreigners, corporate employees and college students who are addicted to different types of banned drugs, according to police sources.
