MANGALURU: Cases booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Mangaluru city recently indicate that the neighbouring towns of Kasaragod and Uppala in Kerala are emerging as hubs for narcotics.
A team led by Mangaluru city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar and DCP Hariram Shankar is working extensively to curb the drug menace through intense intelligence gathering.
This year, the city police have seized about 276 kg of ganja, 175.6 g of MDMA tablets, 3 grams of MDMA powder, 21.1 g of cocaine, 0.8 g of heroin and 15.2g of LSD strips.
DCP Hariram Shankar told TOI, “We have been able to detect transportation of drugs cases more because of focused efforts and coordination with the Kasaragod police.” Referring to the recent cases, including two raids conducted after getting a tip-off about MDMA being peddled and seizure of 200 kg ganja, he said that these drugs were being transported to Uppala in Kasaragod.
Even the LSD strips seized recently were supposed to be sold in Mangaluru and Kasaragod.
The week that we seized 200 kg of ganja on May 26, about 240 kg of ganja was seized by the Kasaragod police as well.
“These raids indicate that Kasaragod is developing as a hub for narcotics.
Since Mangaluru and Kasaragod are neighbouring cities, supply and consumers are spread across both the cities.
We have also observed that the final destination of most of the drugs seized is Kasaragod, and more specifically Uppala.
It is also suspected that from here it is distributed to the rest of the state, and Mangaluru and bordering areas,” Shankar said.
The city police also observed that the target for high-end drugs are mainly students.
The peddlers have procured these drugs in anticipation that educational institutions will reopen.
This year, so far, the city police have booked 209 NDPS cases and arrested 288 accused.
“The accused are often repeat offenders, and tend to take advantage of the inter-state borders to escape.
The changing nature of high-end drugs, for instance, LSD strips resemble paper and MDMA in powder or crystal form, makes it easy to conceal, and police require expertise for detection of these substances,” the DCP said.
It is learnt that ganja is mainly procured from Andhra Pradesh, and transported in vehicles carrying fish or vegetable.