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New Year celebration with drugs and dhamaal in Mumbai

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Mumbaikars are enthusiastically planning celebrations to ring in the new year on 31st December. Along with, the city’s infrastructure too is gearing up to ensure that the festivities are not marred by any untoward incidents. With the public sentiment still strong against the CAA and the NRC, the Mumbai Police will keep a close watch on the cyberspace for any indications of an impromptu protest. Senior police officers have informed that no permissions have been granted for any protests on Tuesday and action will be taken against attempts of unauthorised protests. The city as well as the Traffic police will also be out in full force to prevent incidents of eve teasing, theft, robbery, drug consumption and drunk driving.

As many as 20 extra buses were pressed into service for the revelers at popular spots like Colaba, Marine Drive and Juhu Beach. However, those planning to fly out for their year-end break may have to brace for delays in view of heavy fog in Delhi playing havoc with the flight schedules. If we look at the overall picture of the city, there is celebration, fun, security controls and foreign drug peddlers and parties that keep Mumbai police on their toes. Because we mumbaikars people are very tolerant to migrants; let it be Bangladeshis or Africans. From fraud mail, fishing, drugs, flesh trading and terror which is the hub right next door of Mumbai residents. They have localities and huge places allotted in their name. They have restaurants and trades in Mumbai. They are the representatives of fortune in faraway lands but the fount of those beckoning fraud emails that promise a lottery win in, all these scammers live in Mumbai’s very own backyard like Mira Road, Pila house, Nagpada and Byculla.

‘Nigerianwadi’ at a 20-minute walk from the Mira Road railway station is evidence they say, the IP addresses of almost all the computers from where these fraud emails originate are traced to Mira Road. Mira Road provides the fraudsters a perfect camouflage. A fast-growing suburb, Mira Road affords them the anonymity they desperately need and the inexpensive one-room rented flats that go for as little as Rs 3,000 a month. The word Nigerianwadi was coined by policemen who on several occasions were roughed up while trying to pick up a suspect in a scam or a drug case. Many of these Nigerians migrated to other areas including Nalasopara. But some of them stayed back. The two internet parlours near Nigerianwadi, as a result, are still doing reasonable business. Because the owners get atleast Rs 100 from each of these guys compared to the paltry Rs 10 the others pay. They sit here from morning to night. These Nigerians are not only drug addicts but violent much of the time. That is the reason why some policemen openly admit that they are scared to detain Nigerian suspects from the locality. There were times when we lured them as recipients of Nigerian scam mails and arrested them when they came out of the area. They are physically strong and go to any length to resist the cops.

Last year, forty policemen in three teams formed by the anti-narcotics cell hunted down drug peddlers. They took the help of local cabbies to catch nine Nigerian drug peddlers in Byculla and other areas. This is the first time the police have nabbed so many Nigerian drug peddlers at one go. Cocaine worth Rs 5 lakh and MD worth Rs 18,000 was recovered from them. After three years of chasing African drug peddlers, it was supposed to be a great victory for the police when they arrested nine of them this year, a few months ago. But now, it looks like the criminals may be the real winners after all. The Africans have either destroyed or hidden their passports and refuse to disclose their country of origin leaving the cops no way to know where to deport them. The African drug network has been notoriously difficult to tackle and more often than not, the dealers manage to give cops the slip. But running away from the police is not the only way the criminals have managed to hold on to the drug trade in Mumbai for so long. Following the example of illegal immigrants across the world, the African drug pushers tear up their passport as soon as they arrive in India to avoid deportation. The interrogation of the recently arrested nine dealers indicates that they too might have done something similar. The peddlers at a time refuse to disclose their nationality and despite searching their homes, mobile phones and other belongings, the cops hardly find any clues. The peddlers have even figured out that getting arrested can help them stay on longer in the country. Many of them try to get arrested on purpose since they cannot be deported until the investigation and the Court case ends. This could take several months or even years.

Most of the Nigerians even prefer to stay in a brothel, the sex workers find it safe keeping them around as they are physically strong and can protect these women against any nonsense. Loosing at these men and their violent approach the customers try to be grounded. The cost of keeping them is just a space in the corner and two time meals. These Nigerians pay a better amount than the local customers, the sex workers in Mumbai play crucial role in sheltering these drug peddlers.

Nigerians in India form one of the largest African communities in the country. As of now, there are about 70,000 Nigerians living and working in India. These Nigerians have a negative public image in Indian society as some of them are involved in illegal activities in India such as drug trafficking, drug abuse, prostitution trafficking, fraud and forgery of travel documents such as passports and visas, trafficking in stolen documents. There are also more than 500 known Nigerians in various jails across India. Nigeria itself treats its own people very poorly. They do not care for their people; why should other people care for them?


(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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