he Surat city Crime Branch arrested two individuals, including a Nigerian national, in connection with a Rs 55 lakh MD drug seizure case. The accused, Ajay Gulla Thakur and David Prince Uche, were apprehended on November 16 during a raid in the Nala Sopara area of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The arrests followed the November 16 operation, where Surat Crime Branch officers had previously arrested Irfan Pathan, Tausif Rafiq Sha, and Asfaq Kureshi near the Kapletha village check-post in Sachin. The trio was found in possession of 554 grams of MD, valued at approximately Rs 55.48 lakh, along with a sedan car.
During their interrogation, the three accused revealed that they had procured the MD from Mumbai. This led the police to target Nala Sopara, where they initially arrested Ajay Gulla Thakur, a known history-sheeter, who confessed to supplying the drugs to the three men. Thakur further disclosed that he had purchased the MD from David Prince Uche, who lived in Priyanka Apartment in Nala Sopara.
A subsequent raid on Uche’s residence in Nala Sopara resulted in his arrest. Police records revealed that Uche had previously served time in Kolhapur jail between 2015 and 2019 for a cheating case registered at Kandivali police station. Thakur, on the other hand, had an outstanding case under the Arms Act at Virar police station.
In a related development, the Surat cybercrime police also made another arrest in a separate international cyber cheating racket. The accused, Ketan Vekariya, was linked to Rs 111 crore worth of fraudulent transactions. Vekariya allegedly arranged for bank account holders to act as intermediaries, providing them with Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for the use of their accounts, which were then used in a cheating operation coordinated by Milan Darji, a Dubai-based individual who remains at large.
The Surat police continue their investigation into both the drug trafficking and cybercrime cases.
