Nigerian peddlers driven out of Panchkula shift to Mohali, India

Nigerian drug dealers seem to have shifted their base from Panchkula to this city. In the year gone by, 14 Nigerianswere arrested from here on those charges against only three from Panchkula, while two years ago, the latter’s catch was a dozen and Mohali‘s much smaller.

Police have their reasons for believing why these dealers, who come from an Atlantic-coast African country on the Gulf of Guinea, have relocated to the other satellite town of Chandigarh. “The Panchkula police crackdown drove them to the nearest safe place and now they have become a headache for the Mohali police,” said a police source in Panchkula.

Senior police officers from Mohali and Panchkula blame it also on the mushrooming of private educational institutes in Mohali district. Most of the Nigerian drug dealers use student visa to arrive in India, and it makes sense for them to stay near their universities and colleges, which are also their customer base. Most of the Nigerian traffickers have a base in Delhi from where they smuggle drugs into different states.

The Nigerians nationals found to be involved in the drug trade had reached India on either student visa or as football players. Many also used tourist visa. The senior police officers say these peddlers target youngsters mostly, for which they prefer staying close to colleges and hostels.

There are far more colleges and universities in Mohali’s periphery than there are in and around Panchkula. The officers say the drug dealers take rented accommodation around hostels to cultivate regular customers. Once they abounded in Chandigarh before the police strictness shunted them out. In 2016, Mohali police had caught seven Nigerians in cases of drug trade and come to know from them that the Tricity had a big customer base for smack, heroin, cocaine, and the other high-end drugs. The buyers are college students, mainly.