Three men of Nigerian nationality have been arrested following a drug raid that saw eight police officers wounded in India, the Asian Age reports.
The arrested Nigerians have been identified as 24-year-old Igwe Chikwneni Emaniyal and 37-year-old Ifunanya Ginika Minke, said to be the ring leader who was out on bail after being previously jailed for drug offenses.
The third accused has been identified as Ugwu Ugochukwu Stanley (33), who was caught from near P D’Mello road.
The raid came as a result of several complaints by residents of the activities of the Nigerian drug dealers in the stretch between Byculla an D P D'Mello Road, and over 70 police and drug officials raided the area on April 29.
In the raid, more than 20 foreign nationals were found in the stretch, but at the end, only two were arrested while the remaining escaped, and as it turned out, the two were Nigerians, while a third Nigerian was arrested a few days later.
The operation also left eight policemen injured after the criminals pelted the officers with stones while resisting arrest.
According to Atulchandra Kulkarni, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), the reports of the activities of the foreign criminals had been growing, forcing the authorities to go on the raid.
"We had received reports that the foreign nationals roam around the area in big groups making it difficult for small police teams to nab them. Hence, we decided to form a number of teams of at least four to five officers in each and take them by surprise.
We conducted the operation after midnight and took private vehicles to intercept them. However, the accused were comfortable with the topography of the area and ran towards the railway tracks between Masjid and Dockyard road station and escaped.
As the area is not well-lit and has high traffic of fast trains, we could not pursue them for long.
One of them jumped from a 30-foot high bridge, while the others picked up stones lining the tracks and pelted them at the officers, slowing their progress and also injuring many.
They were found with packets containing cocaine, each weighing 20 grams."
The police also seized seven mobiles, a digital weighing machine and Rs 44,000 in cash.
"The operation left eight policemen injured with senior inspectorSantosh Bagwe in a near critical state. Some of them ambushed Bagwe and would have crushed his head with a stone but ran away after we fired a round to frighten them," the Commissioner added.
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