Police today claimed to have unearthed a nexus between Punjab-based and foreign drug suppliers with the arrest of four persons, including an African couple, and recovered 4 kg heroin worth, Rs 16 crore in the international market, from them.
"The group's kingpin Micheal Chinedu Chukwudi, a Nigerian national, his wife Catherine Leonard Mrope, from Tanzania, and drug suppliers, Surender Singh, and Balwinder Singh, both from Kapurthala in Punjab were arrested on Saturday," DCP (Special Cell) Sajiv Kumar Yadav said.
Balwinder and Surender, received three kg heroin from Micheal and were going to supply it near a petrol pump close to Rohini jail when they were nabbed by the Special Cell sleuths, the officer said.
During interrogation, the duo admitted that they used to supply heroin to various persons in Punjab and Delhi-NCR. Micheal, who lived at Pochanpur in Dwarka, had rented two to three apartments there and a house in Gurgaon, where he used to keep heroin, Yadav claimed.
Simultaneous raids were conducted in Dwarka and Gurgaon and the kingpin of the cartel was arrested, and one kg heroin was recovered from him, the officer said.
In another raid, his wife was also arrested on the charges of illegally staying in the country for nearly two years, forgery and possession of fake passport, he said.
Apart from their Nigerian and Tanzanian passports, counterfeit South African passports with stickers of fake visa of India and immigration stamps were recovered from the couple, Yadav said.
During interrogation, Michael admitted that his friends had contacts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and they used to send heroin to him through human couriers as well as courier deliveries. He was supplying heroin to various drug suppliers in Punjab through Balwinder and Surender for last six months, the DCP said.
He also admitted to forging South African passport as his Nigerian one had expired, he added.
