Drug Trafficking Through Madhya Pradesh Under Scanner As DRI Finds Nine Foreign Nationals Without Valid Documents

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): An investigation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Madhya Pradesh have revealed that many foreign nationals arrested or detained in connection with narcotics cases were residing in India illegally with expired or missing travel documents.

In recent actions by DRI, in four different cases, as many as nine foreign nationals from Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal were found without legal documents.

In October, DRI officials detained three Nigerian women from a Mumbai-bound train at Bhopal's Rani Kamlapati station. Although no drugs were recovered, questioning revealed that the eldest woman's visa had expired in 2018, while the other two possessed no valid travel documents.

The trio, identified as Adetokunbo Adunni, Kela Christine and Nikechi Princess, was subsequently shifted to the foreign nationals' detention centre at Talaiya police station.

In a separate operation, a young Ghanaian woman arrested by the DRI with cocaine worth approximately Rs crore was also found to have overstayed her visa by a year.

More recently, officials detained a 30-year-old Senegalese man who entered India via Nepal without a valid visa. While no contraband was found, authorities are investigating his unauthorised entry.

According to intelligence sources, suspects using Madhya Pradesh as a transit corridor on long-distance trains and buses toward cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru often share a distinct modus operandi.

Many enter India legally on student or medical visas and remain in the country for years after their permits expire.

To evade scrutiny, they rarely carry physical passports. Instead, they present blurry, illegible digital copies on their mobile phones, a tactic investigators suspect is used to conceal assumed identities.

This pattern was also evident during a joint August operation by the DRI and the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN). Following the arrest of four Nigerian suppliers in Greater Noida, who attempted to flee by jumping from a flat window before being caught after a foot chase.

From their female associate at Bhopal Junction, authorities seized 8.6 kg of methamphetamine valued at Rs 7.1 crore. Most suspects failed to produce valid travel documents, indicating the growing overlap between illegal immigration and synthetic drug smuggling.