‘Chief’ of Bengaluru coke syndicate held 

BENGALURU: Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), probing the drug peddling racket in the state, on Monday evening arrested a Nigerian who they claim to be the kingpin supplying cocaine to a chain 
of peddlers. In a statement on Tuesday, Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil, said, “The main kingpin in the cocaine supply chain in Bengaluru has been arrested by the CCB. He is called ‘Chief’. His real name is Chidiebere Ambrose.”

A senior police officer, who was part of the investigation, said that Ambrose was caught when he was meeting a group of peddlers at a house in Banasawadi on Monday. The operation was planned carefully and railway police too had been alerted.A team of police officials who were on Ambrose’s trail received a tipoff that he was meeting the peddlers at Banaswadi house and conducted the raid. Ambrose was then produced before court, which remanded him in police custody.

A special team working on tracking Ambrose had gathered call records of his associates and had been watching his movements. They learnt that he was coming to Bengaluru by train and was bringing drugs from neighbouring states to distribute them to his network of peddlers, the official said. The investigating team had alerted the railway police about Ambrose’s arrival. 

After the arrest, the CCB seized 28 different SIM cards from Ambrose as he frequently changed his numbers to keep in touch with his peddlers.The police officer said that the interrogation of those arrested in drug cases since August this year consistently threw up the name of Chief, indicating his status in the network. “W found that all the Nigerian drug peddlers bought cocaine from a person named ‘Chief’. After a detailed investigation, this Chief has been arrested,” Patil said in the statement.

With Ambrose in the net, a senior police officer said that they can now carry out investigations to identify the source of the drugs. Besides, further investigations will also bring out several more names involved in the drug racket, the official said.