How drug dealers in Uttar Pradesh use ‘kapra’, ‘ghas’ to dodge police

PRAYAGRAJ: Like arms dealers, drug peddlers in UP too have a forever-changing lexicon of words and phrases to throw law enforcement agencies off track.
Following a recent bust, the STF has stumbled upon an active vocabulary of psychoactive drug smugglers, where ‘kapra’ (cloth) stands for heroin/smack and ‘ghas’ (grass) is widely used to refer to marijuana/ganja. Thus,‘ek metre kapra’ translates into a kilo of smack, ‘adha metre’ to 500gm and so on. Curiously, ganja smuggled in from Odisha is called ‘ geela ghas’ (wet grass) and a consignment from Bengal or other eastern states is called ‘sukha ghas’ (dry grass).
“Apart from using code words for ganja, smack and charas (resin form of cannabis), the stash is transported in specially modified trucks to dodge on-road checking and surveillance. There are often secret chambers in the driver’s cabin. If a car is being used, there is hidden boot space,” said additional SP (STF) Neeraj Kumar Pandey.
“If a driver notices police surveillance and knows delivering consignment would be difficult, he will use phrases like ‘gari kharab ho haya’ (vehicle has broken down) to notify his accomplices,” Pandey said, adding that the code word for a carton was ‘gatta’.
According to STF officers, drug dealers often rope in people with multilingual skills to smuggle in consignments from Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. “The consignments may be concealed in grain sacks or even school bags to avoid suspicion. Use of cellphones is minimal during transit,” Pandey said.