Hyderabad: The Telangana Anti-Narcotic Bureau (TGANB) recently caught a Nigerian man with drugs like Cocaine and Ecstasy pills. The seized drugs are worth Rs 1.25 crore.
The man, named Emmanuel Bediako Alias Maxwell (34), had 150 grams of Cocaine, 1,100 Ecstasy pills, and two mobile phones. Two other Nigerians, Sunny and Onyeisi Romanus Ikechukwu, are still on the run.
According to the police, Maxwell has traveled to India three times. On his third trip, he expected to earn about Rs 1.17 crore (210 million Nigerian Nairas) as commission.
On his first visit, from November 2013 to July 2022, he entered India with a medical visa under the name Omyeisi Esomchi Kenneth. Though he claimed to go to Bangalore, he never did. Instead, he followed his cousin Romanus’s instructions to stay in Goa and conduct drug sales. Between 2013 and 2022, he sold drugs worth over Rs 2 crore, earning a 20% commission, which amounted to nearly Rs 40 lakh (72 million Nairas). He returned to Nigeria in August 2021.
For his second visit, he arrived in Delhi on December 25, 2023, again on a medical visa, this time under the name Ezuruike Chirotam Valentine. He skipped Bangalore again, choosing Goa for his operations. By July 2024, he went back to Nigeria after earning Rs 20 lakh in seven months. On his third visit in January 2025, advised by Romanus, Maxwell used a Ghana passport under a different name. Romanus deposited 2,000,000 Nairas in his account and arranged documents for his travel. Maxwell arrived in Delhi on January 25, 2025, using a medical visa. He then moved to Goa, dealing with pure Cocaine and MDMA. He sold Cocaine at Rs 25,000 per gram and each Ecstasy pill at Rs 6,000.
K Madhu Mohan Reddy, DSP TGANB, stated that until his arrest in 2024-2025, Maxwell laundered money worth 103 million Nigerian Nairas as commission from drug sales. The drug value in India reached around 500 million Nigerian Nairas. The drugs, sourced from abroad, were sold in India, and the profits were sent back to Nigeria using a complex money laundering network involving an Indian Hawala operator and a Nigerian in Mumbai.
Maxwell made about 150 bank transactions worth 103 million Nigerian Nairas to Romanus, his wife, and brother-in-law. Recently, Romanus instructed Maxwell to expand operations to Hyderabad due to a large customer base there. Maxwell moved to a friend’s house in Sainikpuri, Hyderabad, to build a network of local drug peddlers and users. Acting on a tip, TGANB officers arrested Maxwell in Sainikpuri.
