Bengaluru Police seize narcotics worth Rs 25.23 crore in crackdown on drug peddling

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Jun 29, 2026: In sustained operations, Bengaluru Police, including the Central Crime Branch (CCB), busted drug-peddling attempts and recovered banned substances worth Rs 25.23 crore in the open market.

Police arrested 17 suspects, including three foreign nationals, eight from different states and six Bengaluru residents. The foreign nationals have been identified as Ambomo John Victor alias Wisdom Ikechukwu, Chime Ndubuisi Moses and Karikri Emos, all from Nigeria.

The arrests were executed on different dates over the past few weeks. The seizures included 10.306 kg of MDMA, 127.302 kg of ganja, 3.314 kg of hydro ganja, 300 e-cigarettes, 90 hookah flavours, 300 hookah pots, and other banned items.

Of the recoveries, CCB’s Anti-Narcotics Wing (ANW) alone made a whopping seizure of 10.270 kg of MDMA and 2.44 kg of hydro ganja, worth Rs 23 crore on the open market.

"We have seized over Rs 200 crore worth of narcotics this year alone," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said in a media briefing on Monday.

Singh announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for the CCB team overseen by LY Rajesh, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ANW.

Officials from the ANW, and Subramanyanagar, Madiwala, Rajajinagar, Whitefield, Tilaknagar, Yeshwanthpur, and Indiranagar police stations raided identified locations across different parts of the city on various dates.

During interrogation following the arrests, the suspects allegedly confessed that, with the intention of making illegal profits, they procured prohibited narcotic substances at low prices from unidentified suppliers belonging to foreign countries, other states, and within Bengaluru, and were selling them at higher prices to the general public and college students.

"They also admitted to manufacturing tobacco products of various brands in violation of the provisions of the COTPA Act," a police statement said.

From the suspects, police recovered seven mobile phones, one car and six two-wheelers. Efforts are underway to trace the origins of the substances and their suppliers. The suspects were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.