The clientele of a group of drug peddlers, who were arrested by the police last month for selling methamphetamine, included many youngsters and IT professionals from the city. Investigations revealed that several women were also included in the list of the clients.
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“The police questioned some of the clients, whose whereabouts were collected from the arrested peddlers. It was shocking to learn that some of them, including women, had been using the drug to keep them awake at night shifts,” said a police officer.
G. Gowtham (26) of Namakkal, H. Abhimanyu (27) of Kovaipudur, T.A. Fazil (22) of South Ukkadam, Mohammed Arshith (27) of Karumbukadai, I. Ijas (27) of South Ukkadam and Bevin (23) of Sungam were arrested by the enforcement bureau of Coimbatore City Police with 102 grams of methamphetamine and 1.2 kg ganja on May 17.
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The accused confessed to the investigators that they sourced the drug from Vinoth who in turn had procured them from Praveen Kumar, who worked as a cab driver in Bengaluru.
Since Kumar claimed that he did not know the seller, the police used him as a decoy and found that online payments made to purchase drugs went to an account held by a Kenyan woman, namely Ivy Bonuke.
The police arrested the woman from Bengaluru and found out that she was operating the network at the behest of her boyfriend and suspected mastermind Aivan Gabonge, an Ugandan national undergoing a jail term in a drug case at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan said the focus of the investigation was to trace the supply chain and arrest all the persons involved in the drug trade.
“The city police will soon record the arrest of the Ugandan national. We will approach the court in Karnataka to bring him to Coimbatore on prisoner transit warrant and interrogate in our case. It is also crucial to subject mobile phones used by the foreigner to cyber forensic examinations to get more details about the network,” he said.