Bengaluru Police have arrested 34 alleged drug peddlers and seized narcotics valued at ₹12.61 crore in operations conducted across 11 police station jurisdictions, Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The arrests followed information received by the police about the sale and supply of drugs in different parts of the city. The accused include two foreign nationals, nine people from states including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha, and 23 local residents, according to the police.
The operations were carried out by police teams from Hebbal, Koramangala, D.J. Halli, Mahalakshmipuram, Yeshwanthpur, Adugodi, Hennur, Begur, Hebbagodi and Bandepalya stations. The arrested individuals were taken into custody and questioned, while efforts were continuing to trace people allegedly supplying drugs to them, the commissioner said.
In the largest seizure mentioned by the police, the Hebbal station team recovered 3.114 kg of MDMA valued at ₹6.32 crore. A Nigerian national, Obina Batlemio Godwin, 50, was arrested near Manipal Hospital in Mysuru. Police said he had rented a house in the old Kesare area.
The police also said that an investigation linked to an earlier case had resulted in the seizure of 46.556 kg of MDMA, ₹17.05 lakh in cash, two two-wheelers and a car over the past three months. The supplied report does not specify whether all of these seizures are part of the latest 34-arrest operation or relate to the continuing investigation.
In another case, Hebbal police arrested Kalasipalya resident Imran Pasha, 36, and Sahrool Islam Didar, 28, from Maharashtra’s Thane, allegedly for selling ganja. The team seized 9.321 kg of ganja, according to the police.
The Koramangala police seized 841 grams of MDMA valued at ₹1.68 crore, while the D.J. Halli police recovered MDMA valued at ₹1.66 crore. In four separate cases, the Mahalakshmipuram police arrested M.P. Raman, 33, Raghavendra, 37, K. Amanjeya, 21, Sangeeth, 20, Ishith Emmanuel, 19, and P. Abhishek, 34.
Those cases involved the seizure of 1 litre and 40 millilitres of hashish oil valued at ₹1.24 crore, 490 grams of MDMA and 415 grams of ganja. The police said the investigation to identify and locate the alleged suppliers would continue.
