Nigerian citizen nabbed in major drug trafficking case in Kozhikode

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The police on Tuesday (April 29, 2025) arrested a Nigerian citizen who was suspected of having key involvement in a major MDMA smuggling case registered at Kunnamangalam police station three months ago.

Frank Chikezie, the eighth accused in the case, was nabbed from Greater Noida by a five-member police squad from Kunnamangalam station led by Assistant Commissioner A. Umesh.

Forty SIM cards and several ATM cards were recovered from the 32-year-old man who came to India to pursue a postgraduate course in pharmacy. The police squad also gathered the details of 45 mule accounts allegedly operated by the drug traffickers’ gang under him at various locations in Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Mr. Umesh who led the probe said all the traced mule accounts were in the name of poor farmers and rural people. “We have initiated legal measures to freeze all these bank accounts,” he confirmed.

Two Tanzanian citizens had already been nabbed from Punjab in connection with the major drug trafficking case.

According to police sources, the two arrested — Kilekamajenga David Nteme, 22 and Myonga Akta Haruna, 21 — had been part of international drug trafficking for months with their close aides in various Indian States. They were undergraduate students at the Lovely Professional University in Punjab and reportedly maintained close contacts with Chikezie for drug deals, the police said. 

It was on January 21 that the Kunnamangalam police seized 221 grams of MDMA and arrested two youths-Abhinav, 21 and Ibrahim Muzammil, 27 from a lodge at Karanthur. A subsequent inquiry into the incident helped them nab three more youths, including two who escaped to Dubai following the drug seizure.

Police sources said the foreign nationals’ involvement in the incident came to light after interrogating the five arrested youths.