Tracking down main cartels challenge for enforcement agencies

KOCHI: The past few months have seen a rise in the flow of drugs, especially psychotropic drugs, to Kerala. Though enforcement agencies have managed to nab a couple of foreigners in connection with drug seizures, they have been unable to make much headway in tracking down the main cartels pushing the drugs into the state due to the multi-layer strategy the latter follow.

In January, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) nabbed a Filipina at the Nedumbassery airport with 4.8 kg of cocaine valued at `25 crore. In December last year, a Venezuelan was caught with 1 kg of cocaine, while a month before that, a Paraguay national was caught with 3.6 kg of cocaine.

“More foreigners are into the drugs trade, especially synthetic drugs and cocaine. It seems the arrested persons are carriers who opt to smuggle the contraband to make a quick buck. There is growing evidence of the involvement of international cartels, mainly trafficking of psychotropic drugs, imported from various countries,” said an intelligence officer.

NCB Joint Director A Bruno said, “It’s really hard to get to the main cartels which push the contraband to the state using foreign nationals because they operate in different layers with one layer having no clue about the other. Generally, the couriers are appointed by third parties who have no idea about the main network of the cartels.”

“We repeatedly tried to collect details from the couriers, but they were unable to supply us with much information,” he said.

The efforts by the state and the national agencies to discourage people from engaging in the illegal trade have also failed to yield results as even while serving jail time, the couriers act as conduits to recruit new persons into the trade.