Swedish model claims evidence of Goa police, drug mafia nexus

Swedish model Lucky Farmhouse, who used a spycam to expose her boyfriend Yaniv Benaim's links with the Goa police says she has enough evidence to establish a nexus between the police and Goa's notorious drug mafia.

"I have not put out all the [spycam] recordings because I need to save those in case they will be coming after me," the model told the Press Trust of India in an email interview from Sweden today. "If they make any problem for me in the future, I will put it out."

The model, 33, who was having a live-in relationship with Benaim aka Atala, had shocked the Goa police after she posted her boyfriend's clippings on social networking website YouTube.com (see below).

The video clip triggered a crackdown on the police-drug-peddler nexus, which saw Atala and five policemen, including an inspector, arrested for their links with the drug mafia.

Farmhouse alleged that the son of a "big politician" was also involved with the drug mafia. "I have met him in Atala's house many times and will remember his face. It is scary to see his father in the news. He is the reason I have not put out all recordings," she said.

"I'm not afraid of Atala, but I'm little afraid of this police and what they can do," she said.

The drug peddler-police nexus controversy had forced the Goa police to change the way they stock the drugs seized from traffickers.

State home minister Ravi Naik had said that the force will get to the bottom of the case.

Farmhouse claimed that it was not just sleuths from the anti-narcotics cell, but also those from the local police station who were dropping in often at Atala's place and cybercafé to demand bribes.

"Anjuna police were coming every day to his business 'Atala Coffeshop' to pick up smaller bribes, Rs7,000 according to Atala. They did not leave the minibus [police van]. Atala went out where they parked to pay them," she said.

Farmhouse has modelled in Stockholm, London, Paris and Hamburg for a few big brands. She has also participated in The Reality Show, which made her a known name in Sweden.

Narrating anecdote after anecdote of how police were squeezing money from Atala while she was in Goa, Farmhouse said that one night her boyfriend met a police officer on a empty road and gave him Rs47,000, but he was still asking for more.

"This is the same policeman who sold the plastic bag with different drugs in one of the videos and the policeman Atala gave information to about other criminals," she said. "He was driving a motorcycle/scooter when we met.

"I will remember his face. Atala did never tell me he was going to pick up drugs or pay bribes. He felt safe with the fact that I was not interested in his 'friendly contact' with the corrupt police to take over his business," she said.

"He was proud of his friendship with those corrupt men but at the same time scared and wanted someone to come along with him in the car in case something would happen," Farmhouse said.

The model, who left Goa in February 2008 after putting up the videos on the social networking website, said she had to punish Atala.

"I had to punish him and today I'm happy I did. When I met Atala he in the beginning treated me very nicely and really tried to show himself as a good man. He kept his drug problems secret for me," she said.

"After I had gone back to Sweden for two months and was coming back to Goa to move into his house, everything had changed. He was now heavily addicted to cocaine, doing his drugs openly in the house.

"He was very aggressive and violent to me and everyone around. I was very disappointed. I had come all the way from Europe to live with him, [only]  to find out he was a junkie," she said.

"Every day policemen came to the house invited by him and discussed dirty business. At first I thought those men were criminals and not from the police because I could not believe how corrupt and greedy they were," she said.

The model said Atala was banned from India in 2006, he had been to jail in Israel, and was not welcome back there.

She said that before he came to Goa he had been arrested in Thailand for drugs and banned there too.

"He had asked around among his criminal friends if someone could get rid of me. So I continued to record when I had the chance and booked a ticket back to Sweden," she said, narrating the story of her days in Goa before she left for her country.

She also said that police should probe Atala's link in British teenager Scarlett Keeling's murder as Scarlett was a regular visitor to his coffee shop.

"The policeman whom the mother, Fiona MacKeown, accused of being involved in the murder was the same policeman visiting Atala in his house and in his business almost every day," Farnhouse said.

She said the police had not yet contacted her to record her statement. "I will tell them everything if they contact me," she said.