Drug peddler in guise of merchant nabbed with 15L booty

A 44-year-old citizen of Ivory Coast disguised as a cloth merchant has been arrested with 32 kg of marijuana, which is valued at Rs 15 lakh in the international market, police said.

Toure Mustafa would procure the banned substance from his contacts in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and sell it to customers — mainly students and young men from slums — in an organised way. He would dry the leaves and make small packets of the powder, which were easier to sell.

Police said Mustafa came to India on a business visa in 2015 and was living at Chikkanna Layout near Hennur along with his wife. He rented another house with the sole objective of storing marijuana, police said. He had told his neighbours that he is a cloth merchant.

The suspect was previously arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau, which reports to the Home Ministry. But he got bail and went back to the old ways.

A team of the Central Crime Branch's (CCB) women and narcotics wing led by ACP Shobha S Khatavkar raided the suspect's both the houses on Thursday afternoon and arrested him with the booty. Two of his associates, however, fled from the scene, the CCB said.