PORVORIM: Chief minister Pramod Sawant told the House on Thursday that as Goa is a tourist destination, narcotic drugs are smuggled into the state for consumption and transit.
He, however, did not clarify which destinations use Goa as a transit route.
Sawant, who was responding to a question tabled by Congress MLA Ravi Naik, said 775 drug-related cases were booked by various police stations, the crime branch and the anti-narcotics cell between 2017 and February 2021.
Eighteen cases have been filed under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the last two months alone, he said. The chief minister added that while 148 such cases were booked last year, the number was still less than that booked in 2019 and 2018.
The highest number of cases (222) was booked under the NDPS Act in the year 2018.
People in the know say that shortly after lockdown measures were lifted, rave parties that had come to a standstill in northern parts of Goa, restarted. The Narcotics Control Bureau recently busted a rave party at Ozrant beach in North Goa and detained five people, including a Swiss national.
Goa receives eight to nine lakh international tourists and 80 lakh domestic visitors each year, although footfalls dropped drastically in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the state didn’t take in any foreign tourists last year, tourism stakeholders are expecting the situation to change as a direct flight between Goa and Russia was announced recently.