Revision as of 15:52, 21 December 2013

Drug trade in India

Drug trade: Nigerians top list of foreigners held in drug trade

Jayaraj Sivan | TNN 09

The Times of India

Chennai: Every third foreign national arrested for drug-related offences in the country last year was from Africa and every fourth from Nigeria alone. Neighbouring Nepal (48 arrests), which didn’t lag far behind either, along with Nigeria, accounted for almost 50% of the total 199 arrests of foreigners effected for drug offences. Mynamarese form the third biggest chunk on the list with 19 arrests. Foreigners are, however, hugely outnumbered by locals in the trade. For every foreigner arrested, 99 Indians were also picked up, according to the 2008 annual report of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) released recently.

African drug syndicates pose a major challenge to drug enforcement agencies in India, primarily because of their trans-national links. Located within reach of the South American cocaine belt, West African nationals, especially Nigerians, play a decisive role in the drug’s trafficking. Often, cartels prey on the African diaspora. ‘‘Many, who come to India as students or businessmen, unwittingly bump into drug smugglers when people of the same nationality meet. Lured by the prospect of quick money, some of them fall into the trap. We’ve come across many first-time offenders among Africans,’’ said south zone director of NCB, S Davidson Devasirvatham.

Apart from Nigerians arrested last year (50), other African nationals who figured on the Indian drug radar are Tanzanians (5), Zambians and South Africans (3 each), Kenyans and citizens of Ivory Coast (two each) and one each from Cameroon, Uganda, Congo and Liberia. Barring Zambia, India doesn’t have a bilateral agreement or memorandum of understanding on sharing information on drugrelated crimes with any of these African nations.

While Africans take heroin out of the country, they bring cocaine back into India to exploit its potential as a recreation drug in metros like Delhi and Mumbai and some tourist destinations, says NCB director general OPS Malik in the report. A total of 50 seizures adding up to 12 kg of cocaine, which has a street price of Rs 3,000 per line of 0.5 gram, was made across Indian cities last year.

The most preferred modusoperandi is to send the contraband through ‘‘post or courier parcels’’ and ‘‘human mules’’, mainly women from South East Asian countries. A large number of locals are also used. This modus operandi gives the advantage of anonymity to the actual kingpins and makes it difficult for investigating agencies to trace the masterminds of the trade. It also ensures that seizures don’t leave a financial dent on the traffickers’ operating costs.

A senior police officer said, ‘‘We have information that several Nigerians who were involved in SMS and e-mail lottery frauds had used the booty for the narcotics trade. This helps them operate virtually without any capital investment.’’

Although the number of arrested foreigners went up from 181 to 199 between 2007 and 2008, there is no perceivable long-term trend as regards their involvement in the overall trade of narcotics in the country. In 2006, 232 foreigners were arrested as the trade saw a sudden spurt in the involvement of foreign nationals in drug trafficking, but the number fell the next year, only to go up again in 2008.

African nationals concentrate primarily on the traditional trafficking route of heroin — from Pakistan to India through western borders.

Narcotics

Delhi transit hub in narcotics corridor

Narcotics

Dwaipayan Ghosh TNN

The Times of India

New Delhi: Data released by Narcotics Control Bureau on International Day Against Drug Abuse has once again shown how Delhi is rapidly emerging as a transit point of high-end drugs smuggled by international cartels.

While the capital lags behind other states in use of ganja and opium, it ranks high in consumption of party drugs such as ketamine and cocaine. Maharashtra is the top consumer of party drugs, according to this data. Between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, a total of 143.43kg ketamine has been seized in Delhi compared to Maharashtra (2,170kg) and Tamil Nadu (596kg). Ketamine is produced illegally in the latter states for supply to southeast Asian countries. The fact that Delhi ranks three on the list when it is not even a major producer indicates it is a transit point. Police said this is due to its unique location between producers Afghanistan and Commonwealth of Independent States nations and consumers in southeast Asia.

According to top officers in the narcotics wing and NCB officials, pseudoephedrine—used to make party drugs like ‘Speed’ and ‘Ecstasy’—is a good example of a transit drug. The total seizure of pseudoephedrine in the past one year in north, east and northeast India have been more than 4,500kg.

The figures also include a cocaine haul of 5,429kg and 180kg heroin. The cocaine circuit is dominated by African cartels who also engage in heroin trade. But most of the heroin seized in the capital are of southwest Asian origin and enters India through Pakistan border, says an NCB study.

Security agencies have long believed that some of the money in this trade is actually a portion of narco-terrorism wherein profits from selling this drug is used to fund terror activities. A total of 612.08kg hashish, 955.58kg ganja and 233.42kg opium were also seized from the capital in this one year. A new item on the list is ATS (amphetamine-type stimulants). Over 6.5kg ATS was seized in the city vis-à-vis Maharashtra (40kg).

“It is believed that, due to establishment of special ATS labs, some foreign operatives are using the country’s huge chemical base to source raw materials and produce such drugs. Drug hauls on Delhi-Manipur route show they are being trafficked to Myanmar,” the NCB noted.

“Recent seizures of Kolkatabound consignments in eastern and northern India indicate that the mafia is using West Bengal's ports to smuggle banned drugs to South America. A group of pharmaceutical companies are handing out stocks from Uttarakhand. This is then brought to Delhi en route to northeast, Myanmar and Thailand. The processing is completed in factories there before the drugs are pushed backed to India. While a portion returns to party circles in Delhi and Mumbai, the rest is shipped out to Colombia and Uruguay where these drugs are in high demand,” said an NCB official.

NCB also asked agencies to crack down on abuse of prescription drugs with the smuggling of codeine-based Phensedyl increasing across borders.