12 Africans arrested in Visp asylum centre ring bust
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss and French border guards who are part of a mixed surveillance group nabbed two people on a large-cylinder scooter last Thursday, and found more than 10kg of cannabis resin, Swiss customs officials said 3 October. The mixed teams, with border guards from canton Geneva and Annemasse in France, are part of the joint effort by the two countries to allow police to move more quickly when cross-border crimes are suspected.
The pair on the scooter turned around and fled when they saw a border patrol at about 16:00 last Thursday at Mon Idée, Ambilly 74 in Haute-Savoie. One of them dropped a backpack, police noticed. It was found near a house in the area with the drugs, and police arrested the two on suspicion of drug trafficking, given the quantity.
Police in Valais say 12 arrested in March Nigerian cocaine ring bust
Cocaine haul from the asylum centre in Visp, Valais March 2012
Canton Valais police said Wednesday 3 October that 12 men were arrested in March for their roles in a cocaine ring that worked out of the asylum centre in Visp.
One has been sent back to Nigeria.
The others, mainly from Nigeria but also from Niger, Erithrea, Gambia and Somalia, remain in prison while the case is investigated.
Police seized 1.5kg of cocaine at the Visp asylum centre, where it was stored in a bedroom. They determined that in total the ring had sold 2.8kg of the drug throughout the canton.
Police in Visp also found cell phones used by the drug ring
The street value is about CHF150,000 per 1kg.
Ten of the men were arrested at the centre but a ringleader, a Nigerian with a C permit living in Sion, age 22, was arrested with one of the men, age 21, when they tried to sell the drugs to an undercover cop.
Police also seized 40 cell phones used by the presumed drug traffickers.
