A court in Mohali, Punjab India has sentenced a Nigerian Okeke Anselm Arinze to 10-year jail, four years after he was caught with 800 gm heroin, valued at $520,000.
The prosecution said Okeke was running a drug smuggling racket from a Delhi flat and used to supply heroin to customers across Punjab and Haryana.
The court of additional sessions judge Harreet Kaur Kaleka also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on the convict, Hindustan Times reported.
According to the case file, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Mohali police had arrested Arinze with the heroin on September 30, 2018.
At the time, he lived in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi.
Through interrogation, it was found that Arinze had come to India on a study visa and did not return after it expired.
He was said to be a resident of Surulere in Lagos.
“The accused was coming from the Chandigarh side and immediately took a U-turn on seeing the cops. On search, we recovered 800 grams of heroin,” said SP Sohal in September 2018.
During investigation, the accused confessed that he came to India on medical visa in 2011.
“He went to Tripura, where some of his acquaintances, also from Nigeria, were staying then.
“Later, he started garments business. He took to drug peddling after coming into contact with a person, named Sunny,” said the police, adding that Sunny was currently in South Africa.
Okeke, who has been staying illegally in India, seven years before his arrest, supplies drugs to his customers after keeping contact with them through WhatApp calls, said the police.
