Mumbai: The Mumbai police’s continued efforts to crack down on illegal drugs in the city have led them to believe drug peddlers are now using minor kids as drug mules to avoid suspicion and identification. The Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai crime branch recently came to the conclusion after they saw the pattern significantly in three out of ten cases.
A police officer told The Free Press Journal requesting confidentiality the drug peddlers, who supply drugs mainly to college students in broad daylight, use minor kids as drug mules. These minors are mostly kids dressed in rags and begging near the college gates for alms. Investigation of a few arrested drug peddlers revealed the trick when students identified the accused’s phone number but failed to identify him in person. During further investigation, the accused cracked and spilled the beans, revealing the modus operandi of the drug supply operation.
Police said these drug peddlers mainly supplied to college students in suburbs through minor drug mules and did not directly deal with their customers. This little trick enabled them to evade arrest for so long, said a law enforcement agent.
Police Inspector Anil Wadhawane said, “To make sure the accused would not be charged with serious sections under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, they dealt in small quantities of the drug.
Upon receiving tip-off from informers about the drug trade, police personnel are sent undercover, posing as potential buyers. Deputy Commission of Police (ANC), Shivdeep Lande said, “Police go undercover and demand drugs in huge quantity, in order to lure the accused out in the open from hiding. They are then slapped with sections under the NDPS Act and later arrested.”
Kailash Nagpal, 18, a Std XII student of Bhavans College said, “Often when we are done for the day, students hang out near the college gates and eat junk. It was at that time when kids in rags and bags on the shoulders approached us for money. First we thought they were just beggars, but later we saw them delivering packages with white covering to the students off campus.”
In one such case of drug peddlers using kids as mules, the ANC had arrested Asif Iqbal Khan, 34, earlier in August who supplied drugs mainly to college students in Andheri’s DN Nagar area. Khan had several arrests to his name for similar offences but was never caught red-handed by the police.
Officials familiar with the investigation said Khan made school-going children deliver pouches to his customers by promising them video games and chocolates in return. What the innocent children were unaware of is that they were ferrying pouches full of mephedrone, which is more commonly known as MD.