KOCHI: MDMA smuggling from Oman to Kerala. It is reported that it is an Omani citizen who is supplying the drug to the racket controlled by Malayalis. Central agencies have collected details from the investigation team following the shocking findings of the police. With the foreign connection confirmed, the central agencies may take over the case.

The Omani connection was discovered during the ongoing investigation into five cases in which more than 400 grams of MDMA were seized in West Kochi and Aluva. The gang was caught by the police after a Malappuram native who was at the helm of the drug trade was arrested there. Aashiq (27), a supermarket employee from Nediyiruppu, Malappuram, was controlling the transaction in Oman. He was arrested after he returned home the other day.

Maggi Ashna, a native of Vypin Elankunnapuzha, and Ismail Seth, a native of Mattancherry, were earlier arrested in the case. They were the ones who were transporting the drugs on the plane. Maggi, who had come to Oman for work, became a drug smuggler along with the gang. Ismail Seth is leading the drug trade in Kochi. With this, the number of people arrested in the case has increased to ten.

Ayesha Ghaffar Sait (39), a native of Pune, Maharashtra, her living together partner Rifas Rafeeq (27) from Mattancherry, Adinan Sawad (22), Shanjal (34), Mohammed Ajmal (28), and Palluruthiveli native Badusha (29), were arrested at the end of January with drugs worth crores, including 443.16 grams of MDMA, 6.8 grams of cannabis, 9.41 grams of hashish oil, and 4.64 grams of hybrid cannabis.

The accused were arrested by a team comprising SIs Jimmy Jose and Mithun Ashok, SCPOs Edwin Rose, Dhanish, Aneesh, and CPO Babylal, on the instructions of DCP Aswathi Jiji, Mattancherry Assistant Commissioner Umesh Goel, Narcotics Cell Assistant Commissioner K.A. Abdul Salam, and Mattancherry SHO K.A. Shibin.