Heroin haul alerts city police

Operation drug

The city police have launched an operation to detect possible heroin peddling in the city. This is following the haul of heroin by the Customs on Friday night. The officers had seized 2.5 kg of heroin estimated at Rs8 crore from a Nigerian and his partner, a girl from Imphal.

"Until now, we had no information about heroin and cocaine making the rounds in the narcotic distribution circles within the city. We have been asked to look out for any possible peddlers in these narcotics by our seniors," assistant commissioner of police Omkariah (Women and Narcotics Squad) of Central Crime Branch of the city police, said.

According to the police, there have been no instances of large-scale distribution of heroin and cocaine within the city. A customs (Prevention) officer, who did not want to be identified, said Bangalore is normally used as a transit point for the stuff to foreign destinations.

Transit points

"Heroin and cocaine are distributed at affluent parties. The party organiser usually gets the stuff for his guests, and is distributed within a small group. These parties are usually held in the city outskirts," the customs officer said.

"The real transit points are Belgaum and areas closer to Goa, where a large number of foreign tourists arrive to unwind. But Bangalore is surely emerging as a point from where the narcotics are exported to Singapore and Malaysia. This is because other airports are always under watch," he added.

Wanted: Sniffer dogs

The customs officer said deploying specially trained sniffer dogs is the best way to detect narcotics. "It is impossible for us to detect drugs without reliable tip-offs. In most of the cases, we get the tip-off as people get handsome rewards. The identities of such informants are always kept confidential, and people are happy to give us information," the officer said.

According to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Europeans and Nigerians transport cocaine to Mumbai before it is distributed in South India. From Mumbai, the drugs take the coastal route to South India.

Heroin route

S Davidson Devasirvatham, zonal director of the NCB, had traced the heroin route. "Heroin usually comes from Afghanistan and is brought through coastal areas to Chennai, Tuticorin, Madurai (in Tamil Nadu) Kochi, Kasargod, Kozhikode (in Kerala) and Bangalore," he said from Chennai.

He added that these places are either transit places for drugs that are meant for Maldives and Sri Lanka, or are distributed in these places. Foreign students are paid between Rs5,000 and Rs30,000 to carry Ketamine. The absence of sniffer dogs helps them smuggle it.

Availability in city

Marijuana is the easily available drug in the city. Specified peddlers and agents handle drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The Corps of Detectives (CoD) have this year so far busted 45 cases of drug peddling in the city, out of which 20% are opium, brown sugar and heroin. Seizures have also been made at the Benguluru International Airport.

However, police find it difficult to track the circulation of cocaine and heroin. One gram of cocaine costs at least Rs3,000-Rs5,000, while one gram heroin costs anywhere between Rs2,000 and 4,000.

MK Madhusoodan & Soumya Menon/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication

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