New Delhi: The data suggest Delhi becoming a preferred destination for drug market. As per the officials, more than 19 people have been arrested from Indira Gandhi Airport of New Delhi till date, which is almost double from last year’s corresponding period.
Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) statistics show, 15 people were arrested in eight cases for smuggling 18.05kg of cocaine till July this year while in 2016, only two cases were registered and 215 grams of the drug was seized. Similarly, NCB officials seized 14.44kg of methaqualone and arrested three people till July while in the previous year, a total of 17 kg of narcotic substance was recovered and three were arrested, reports India Today.
The various agency such as Customs, NCD, DRI, Immigration, CISF and the Delhi Police keep a constant vigil on the trafficker, but the number of seizures is only increasing. In most of these cases, foreign nationals were involved but a recent case has left security agencies puzzled as Customs officials seized nearly 2kg of a morphine mixture from a food trolley while it was being taken out of an Air India flight.
Officials suspect the smugglers got inside support to provide transit for such a big quantity. The investigation is on, as to how the drug reached inside the plane despite having several security checks.
One of the biggest drug consumer:
“Delhi itself is one of the biggest consumers of drugs. Its proximity to NCR towns such as Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad, where rave parties are common, also attract drug peddlers,” said a senior security official at IGI on the condition of anonymity. “The inflow of the drug is huge because there is a big market in the city that targets youth and students. Security agencies claim that smugglers are using innovative modus operandi and new travel routes to smuggle drugs into the country,” he said.
“Heroin is mainly smuggled into India from Pakistan. Once it reaches Delhi, it is supplied to local dealers who channel it to rave parties and individuals. Besides, the popular party drug is also shipped to European and American countries concealed in small parcels via air,” a senior NCB official said.
“Drug couriers are largely intercepted and detected at international airports. Delhi is the most connected airport from foreign countries and as it is connected with several bordering states, it further makes it easy for local peddlers to transport drugs in other parts of the country,” a senior narcotics official said.
These traffickers are becoming smarter in finding ways to smuggle the narcotics. They conceal it in false cavities of books, paintings, machinery parts and toys, among others. There are also professional ‘swallowers’ or mules who are hired and paid handsomely for cocaine trafficking by swallowing small capsules or packets of drugs or hiding them inside their private parts, the officer said.