Nigerian among 2 held in synthetic drug case

Abohar, February 10

The police have arrested 26-year-old Nigerian youth Onomiya Julius and Sriganganagar native Manu Saini from New Delhi on the charges of supplying hard drug Mephedrone (MD). The information regarding the synthetic drug racket was provided to the police by Sahil Chadha, a drug peddler, who was arrested earlier.

Were supplying mephedrone

The police recovered 10 gm of mephedrone from Sahil Chadha. During interrogation, Sahil claimed that he used to buy the synthetic stimulant drug from a Nigerian youth, Onomiya Julius, in Delhi through Manu Saini of Sriganganagar

Mephedrone, also known as 4-methylmethcathinone, is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes. It is chemically similar to the cathinone compounds found in the khat plant of eastern Africa.

Jawahar Nagar SHO Kuldeep Charan said Sahil Chadha was arrested recently on a tip-off from the Himachal Pradesh police after the latter apprehended hashish smugglers.The police had recovered 10-gm mephedrone from Sahil. During interrogation, Sahil claimed that he used to buy MD from a Nigerian youth in Delhi through Manu Saini. The police said Sahil used to supply MD to some local youth in Sriganganagar. Sahil, who had failed in betting in the past, got into the drug business.

Manu Saini had moved to Delhi a long time back and started driving a cab. He got acquainted with Julius, who used to supply illegal drugs. He was also a minor agent of a big gang of Nigerians in Delhi, investigation indicated. While staying with Julius, Saini also started supplying illegal narcotics under the guise of driving cab.

The police said no drugs were recovered from Julius and Saini at the time of their arrest. This is the first case of recovery of MD drug in Sriganganagar, which is known as a hub of poppy husk and opium peddlers, besides heroin smugglers.