MAPUSA: Ingenuity is the name of the game. In a bid to outwit authorities, drug dealers and peddlers are employing unique ways and exploiting loopholes in existing laws to keep the wheels of their trade moving.
With usual smuggling techniques now known to the police, it is not uncommon for drug dealers to mix narcotics with other substances like rose water to evade alert cops. “Earlier, postal delivery or courier service was used for the drugs trade, but, now that such tactics are known to the police, new methods are being employed, like trying to pass off the narcotics as rose water,” said a police official.
However, what has flummoxed authorities is that peddlers are now delivering even larger consignments of contraband to customers by packing the narcotics in smaller quantities.
A police source said that peddlers are also demanding that the Aadhaar card of the customer be sent over Whatsapp to help them verify the identity and avoid a potential police trap.
However, drug dealers aren’t the only criminals using Aadhaar cards to secure clients. Pimps operating along the North Goa beach belt too demand potential clients’ Aadhaar cards before supplying call girls, to ensure they aren’t police decoys.
An officer said that drug peddlers are treading a cautious path fearing possible crackdowns, and hence insist on making deliveries of smaller quantities.
Police sources said that smaller consignments allow peddlers to easily walk free in the event of an arrest, rather than attract a harsher punishment for possessing commercial quantities of narcotics substance that could run into kilos.
Under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act the quantum of punishment depends on whether the quantity of drugs involved is small, less than commercial (variable) or is commercial.
Small and commercial quantities for each drug have been notified by the government of India.
“Even if clients demand a larger quantity of drugs, peddlers will nevertheless supply it in smaller installments, even if it takes them two to three days. In many cases, police have posed as decoy customers, only to find a very small quantity on the peddler, which would barely stand the chance of winning a conviction in court,” said a police official.
Police said that such instances only frustrate the authorities as meticulous paperwork has to be completed that eventually leads to bail for the accused, while the drug trade continues to flourish.
“When we work on specific and reliable tip-offs about drug deals, we have noticed in recent times that after the contact is made between the buyer and seller, the seller will only provide the quantity of that drug specified as minor by law. This means they are soon bailed out in the event of an arrest,” said a senior police officer who has served in the coastal belt.
“Under existing laws, tracking cases involving minor quantity of drugs results in lenient punishments for the accused. Police waste a lot of time working on the tip-off, laying the trap, investigating the cases, making the case in court and fighting it out legally,” another senior police officer said.