A Nigerian man, Steve Uzochi, along with five others, has been arrested by the Indian Police Special Team on Cybercrime for allegedly defrauding a businessman of Rs 32.7 lakh (around N53 million) through a fake pharmaceutical trade deal.
Investigations revealed that Uzochi played a key role in the operation, allegedly collecting funds from the victim and other associates before transferring them to the main operators based in Nigeria. Authorities said he was residing illegally in Mumbai using a fake visa and was working closely with a wanted Indian national named Akash Vasant Goni.
The fraudulent scheme spanned multiple states, with arrests made in Mumbai and Bengaluru following a complaint filed by the victim. According to the complainant, he was lured into the scam through an online contact claiming to represent an African pharmaceutical company.
The victim was offered Eupatorium Mercola liquid, a homeopathic formulation purportedly used in Africa for malaria and dengue treatment, at a discounted rate of $6,500 per litre, with promises that it could be resold for $11,000 per litre. To build trust, the scammers allegedly sent a small sample through an intermediary and arranged a meeting with an African man posing as a laboratory scientist to “verify” the product’s authenticity.
Following these steps, the victim transferred Rs 27 lakh as an advance payment to a bank account supposedly belonging to the Indian company Sharma Enterprises. However, upon visiting the firm’s listed address in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, he discovered that no such company existed and realized he had been defrauded.
This arrest is part of a growing number of cases involving Nigerians in India for crimes such as fraud, visa violations, drug trafficking, and robbery. Authorities note that Nigerian nationals are among the most frequent foreign offenders in the country for these offences.
