Lucknow transit point for Nepal’s ganja mules

LUCKNOW: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has detected a stealthy rise in the trade of psychotropic substances via UP, particularly Lucknow, in the past three years. Most drug mules come from Nepal and are bound for Delhi. The consignments are often concealed in a belt around the waist.

Officials of NCB’s Lucknow zone said against 17 hauls in 2016, there had been 24 till June this year with as much as 6,100kg of charas, ganja (both made from cannabis plant), doda post (opium husk) and heroin, among others, being seized. These are worth several crores in the illegal market.
On the eve of the International Day Against Drug Abuse on Tuesday, senior NCB officials told TOI that psychotropic drugs were the latest fad among youths in cities like Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur. They attributed the boost in trade to porous boundaries between Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. “Drug consignments mainly come via three popular trade routes — Sunaouli (in Maharajganj), Rupaidiha (Bahraich) and Barhani Bazaar (Siddharthnagar) — to Lucknow from where they are finally sneaked into Delhi,” said senior NCB inspector UB Mishra, adding that the network involved Nigerian gangs. “These gangs use northeast Indians and the Nepalese as drug mules.” In 2016, around 3.5kg of cocaine, worth crores in the international market, was seized and the kingpin was a Nigerian national living in Delhi. The consignments came well-concealed, wrapped in multiple layers of carbon paper and newspaper. Smugglers are known to use carbon papers as X-ray machines often fail to see through them.
In 2019, there have been 47 arrests. On February 2, 57kg of charas was seized on Lucknow border and two Nepalese men were arrested. During interrogation, they revealed that the delivery was meant for New Delhi. Another seven, also from Nepal, were nabbed with 60kg charas in Lucknow in March. Over the past six months, four Nepal drug mules were also caught in Lucknow with alprazolum injections. It is an anti-anxiety medication that cannot be used without a doctor’s prescription.
“The carriers were nabbed from near colleges based on an informer’s tip-off. They were ferrying the consignment in syringes taped to belts around their waists,” the NCB inspector said, adding that lorazepam and diazepam injections were smuggled in into Lucknow in a similar fashion.
Additional director, NCB Lucknow, RC Joshi told TOI that in order to curb the menace, they had tied up with the Special Task Force of UP Police and the SSB for joint operations.