India arrests 106 Nigerians among 660 foreigners for drug trafficking
India’s narcotics agency has revealed that more than one hundred Nigerians were among over six hundred foreign nationals arrested for drug trafficking across the country last year.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in its latest annual report, said 660 foreigners were apprehended in connection with narcotics offences. Out of this number, 106 were Nigerians, making them the single largest group after Nepalese nationals.
Other arrested foreigners include 203 from Nepal, 25 from Myanmar, 18 from Bangladesh, 14 from Ivory Coast, 13 from Ghana, and 10 from Iceland. The statistics were presented during the second National Conference of the heads of state anti-narcotics task forces in India.
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The NCB highlighted that drug trafficking networks were increasingly using drones to move narcotics across India’s borders. In Punjab alone, 163 cases of drone infiltration were recorded, leading to the seizure of about 187 kilogrammes of heroin, five kilogrammes of methamphetamine and four kilogrammes of opium.
Similar incidents were reported in Rajasthan, where drones were linked to the smuggling of nearly 40 kilogrammes of heroin, while in Jammu and Kashmir authorities seized over 300 grammes of heroin in a drone-related case.
Officials stressed that India’s northern states remain highly vulnerable due to their proximity to Pakistan, while the north-east faces risks from trafficking across the Myanmar border. Coastal states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have also been identified as key entry points for synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals.
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India’s Home Minister, Amit Shah, pledged that traffickers operating from abroad would be brought under Indian jurisdiction, insisting that the fight against drugs must expand beyond traditional policing methods. He said the government was increasing its use of advanced technology, including darknet monitoring, cryptocurrency tracking, metadata analysis and financial surveillance.
The arrests are likely to spark concern in Nigeria, where citizens have repeatedly been implicated in drug-related cases abroad, raising questions over international cooperation and the need for stronger counter-narcotics measures at home.
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