PANJIM: In what could add fuel to the ongoing debate on the rampant narcotics trade in the State, TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai on Friday admitted that everyone is aware about the existence of drug mafias in the State but people are afraid to tell on them. 

“There is a drug mafia and everybody knows that there is a drug mafia. People may be scared to the spill beans on them, so people require protection, they require some guarantee that whatever that is being disclosed about the drug mafia will actually reach the powers that be and not that drug mafia,” Sardesai said.

“That is why we have talked about forming squads in the constituencies which are represented by MLAs of our party,” he said.

Goa Forward Party, which is headed by Sardesai, has decided to form special squads to help police track down the drug trade in Siolim and Saligao Assembly constituencies represented by them. Both are coastal constituencies. 

Sardesai said that for the police to act, someone has to inform them. “People are aggrieved with social impact of the drugs. The drug industry needs to be broken,” he said. “Mafia is ensuring that drugs reach the colleges, schools, and hinterland of Goa. We need efforts to save the Goa, to save our next generation,” he said.

Sardesai, earlier this week had alleged a police-drug peddler nexus and had urged Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to clamp down on the cops involved in it.