Goa cocaine seizure: ED arrests Zimbabwe national, freezes bank accounts after multi-city raids

New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) Incriminating documents and digital devices were seized and a Zimbabwe national was arrested by the ED during searches at multiple locations in Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in a case related to seizure of cocaine worth Rs 43 crore in Goa in April, said an official on Friday.

The searches were conducted by ED’s Panaji Zonal Office on August 19 in the case of Nibu Vincent alias Wilson and others in a case related to the delivery of narcotics, after which the federal probe agency froze multiple bank accounts which were used in money laundering activities.

Tariro Mangwana, a Zimbabwe national, was arrested under section 19 of the PMLA, 2002. The Special Court under PMLA at Goa has remanded the accused in ED Custody for three days, said an ED statement.

The Rs 43-crore cocaine haul was among the biggest by the Goa Police in April. The contraband was hidden in coffee, wafer packets and chocolate and targeted to be sold in Goa, according to the Goa Police, who arrested three accused.

The 4.3 kg cocaine was seized from Chicolna in Mormugao taluka by the police.

Along with the arrest of Vincent, a resident of Vasco, the police had arrested Reshma Wadekar and her husband, Manguesh Wadekar, both from Mormugao.

Reshma, who had travelled to Thailand before her arrest, had a previous criminal background with a prostitution case registered against her, the police said.

Her husband, a worker at a crematorium in Mormugao, was also involved in a crime, the police said.

Investigators said they had received information that a group of people was planning to deliver a consignment of drugs.

In a separate matter, the ED’s Mumbai office restituted movable properties worth Rs 45.26 crore belonging to Sagar Suryawanshi Group to the Liquidator of Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank in a case against Vinay Vivek Aranha and others (Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank fraud) under Section 8(8) of the PMLA Act.

--IANS

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