Africans caught in hawala money laundering bust

Kohima, Sept. 11: Drugs, fake passports and records of hawala deals worth millions of dollars popped out of the bags of three Africans arrested in Nagaland on Friday.

The trio — two Nigerians and a Gambian — were stopped in Dimapur for entering the state without the “restricted area permit”, mandatory for foreigners visiting the Northeast. A routine check of their luggage yielded signs of their involvement in bigger offences — two fake passports, a small pouch containing brown sugar and a diary that mentioned three recent hawala transactions amounting to $15 million, $12 million and $11 million.

The accused, who illegally transferred cash from South Africa to India, had wrongly identified themselves as Ngumah, Alegie and Ez Ealoaku at the time of arrest. The police later found out their real names: Chedozie Martins, Sunday Elealaku and Alagie Gawaneh.

The trio told interrogators the kingpin of their hawala network was based in Mumbai, after which the police sent photographs and other details to Interpol and Mumbai police.

“We already have evidence of their involvement with international hawala and drug-trafficking gangs. But we are waiting for more information so that we can build a strong case against them,” an officer said.

Before arriving in Nagaland, Martins had contacted one Bossikato on September 5 through email. Bossikato is suspected to be the group’s conduit in Nagaland.

Lahorijan in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, bordering Dimapur, is known to be a transit point for drug smugglers and the police suspect the trio of having established contact with the gang that smuggles contraband items from Myanmar to Assam and Nagaland via Manipur.