Kochi police up ante as peddlers use budget hotels for drug deals

KOCHI: Following small time drug peddlers using budget hotels and lodges for trafficking drugs like MDMA and cocaine, the city police have started to keep track of all such hotels situated in the city. At first glance, they appear to be just another pair of travellers checking into a budget hotel for a night’s stay.

Police officers say low-price hotels are an obvious plus for small-time drug peddlers who don’t have the budget to spend on five-star hotels. “Apart from cost factors, these hotels offer protection from authorities. Peddling drugs like MDMA in apartments, cars and other public spaces are too risky as the chances of getting caught is high. Moreover, the rise in installation of CCTV cameras is a worry for peddlers who execute dealings in public spots,” said a senior police officer.

City Police Commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam said budget hotels like OYO rooms have become a big problem as most of them rent out rooms through online medium and do not maintain physical records of the guests. “Some opt rooms for hourly stay. It is easy to carry out drug, alcohol and other immoral activities in these cheap rooms without any accountability. People come from various places, gather, spend time and leave. Though these accommodation facilities offering rooms for Rs 500-Rs 1000 are a boon to common people visiting the city, they are more often abused by persons with hidden motives. Hotel staff are most often in cahoot with customers in such illegal activities,” the officer said.

“We conduct raids based on our surveillance. We have mounted surveillance cameras in areas where we have noticed frequent issues,” he added. Kochi city Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) S Sasidharan said, “We have noticed a few lodges and hotels that are not maintaining proper records of the guests. So we are devising an action plan where in legal action will be considered against the owner of hotels and lodges that allow such illegal activities.”

The police said in the last few months, most of the drug traffickers who were nabbed from hotel rooms in the city were youngsters. “They use fake identification to rent multiple rooms so that one room is used to set up deals and the other to store the narcotics. A third room is also rented as a dummy room to mislead the police. After each deal, the rooms are changed to confuse the buyer. Also, a buyer is not entertained for a second-time deal,” said the police sources.

Majority of the drug seizure cases busted by the police at hotel rooms were possible because of better intelligence inputs by tapping sources and informants. Recently, police nabbed a city resident, Joxy Thomas, 31 , of Vaduthala, for possession of 3.61g of MDMA from room no 110 of Viceroy Residency in Pachalam. Police said the accused had strong criminal antecedents and his modus operandi was to conduct drug trade in rooms rented in budget hotels.