The Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) recently discovered a big hawala money transfer linked to an international drug gang. During a raid in Goa, they found nearly ₹50 lakh in cash hidden inside a washing machine in an apartment.
The raid was a result of a month-long investigation done with the help of the Goa police. TGANB director Sandeep Shandilya said they almost missed the money transfer — if they had arrived just one hour later, the money would have been sent to Nigeria.
The cash was found in an apartment in Highland Park and also linked to a mobile shop named Sangeetha Mobile in Mapusa. The main person behind this, Uttam Singh, who owned the shop, was arrested.
Officials said Singh had helped launder ₹2.1 crore in drug money within just one week. He used a method where he collected cash from foreign nationals, sent it to Mumbai using informal (hawala) channels, and then arranged for it to be sent to Nigeria.
The ₹49.65 lakh found is believed to be just a small part of a much bigger money laundering network. A team from TGANB is now going to Delhi for further investigation.
This case came to light after the arrest of a Nigerian man, Emmanuel Bediako, also known as Maxwell, in Hyderabad earlier this week. He was caught with 150 grams of cocaine and ecstasy pills worth ₹1.25 crore.
According to TGANB, Maxwell had been to India three times since 2013. He mainly operated in Goa and sold drugs like high-purity “celebrity cocaine,” regular cocaine, and MDMA (ecstasy). Authorities believe the drugs were brought from other countries, and the profits were sent back to Nigeria through a secret money transfer system using hawala agents in India.
