The Ernakulam Rural Police are gearing up to wage a multi-pronged war against drug menace after they recorded an unprecedented drug haul, primarily ganja, within their limits this year.
At last count, they have seized 175 kg of ganja, 27 gm of MDMA, 4 gm of hashish oil, 48 LSD stamps, 300 ganja beedis, and 13,500 packets of chewing tobacco. As much as 140 kg of ganja was seized in two separate lots of 105 kg and 35 kg from a car at Angamaly and a rented house within the Rural police limits on November 25.
“We are planning to attach moveable and immoveable properties generated using proceeds from drug smuggling. We are also collecting details of felons with past records of drug dealing, and if they are found to be active in the trade now, we will put them behind bars, invoking the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act [KAAPA],” said K. Karthik, District Police Chief, (Ernakulam Rural).
The police are also trying to work youngsters found to be either users or movers of drugs to elicit more information about the extended networks. Mr. Karthik had constituted a 15-member special investigation squad for a comprehensive probe into drug cases in the immediate aftermath of the seizure of 140 kg of drugs.
The team is likely to intensify probe once the local body elections are out of the way. “We have already collected a lot of information about the major ganja seizure, though revealing it would undermine our probe,” said Mr. Karthik.
The police have concluded that the three arrested in connection with the seizure were wholesalers who used to procure ganja in bulk predominantly from Andhra Pradesh and distribute it to retailers back here. They were nabbed while taking such a consignment from Andhra Pradesh to Thodupuzha.
“We suspect that they had moved the stuff in the past, and they don’t sell in quantities lesser than 1 kg. They visit Andhra Pradesh where agents, including Malayalees, help them source ganja and stuff it in vehicles for movement across the border undetected. They procure it for anywhere between ₹3,000 and ₹6,000 a kg and sell it to retail agents at many folds that price,” said police sources.
With youngsters increasingly utilising the Darknet for procuring drugs, the police are also planning to sweep it. Ganja is much in demand among migrants and youth.
“Such pervasive is its use among youngsters even as young as 14-year-olds that there is even a running joke of sorts among the force that if you tap down 20 youngsters, ganja beedis will tumble out from at least two,” an Enforcement official said.
