Drugs and murder is the cocktail of crime that Goa got to hear of at the start of this week. As much as in the past – recent and not so recent – there have been denials of the drug presence in the State with the authorities at times insisting that Goa is only a place where it is peddled, the repeated raids by the law-enforcement agencies proves that Goa, a State the depends heavily on tourism, is not just a user of drugs, but there is a trail that does not always end here. Can we overlook the fact that there are cases of enforcement agencies, local and national, having busted illegal narcotics growing and manufacturing units in Goa?
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) team that came from Mumbai claims to have busted a major network of drug peddlers in Goa. The claim cannot be taken lightly as the arrests include persons who have formerly also been arrested in connection with the drug business, not just in Goa but in other States too. The persons arrested are of three different nationalities – Indian, Nigerian, Congolese. There are others who are on the radar of the NCB. The drugs recovered in the raids are of various types and include LSD, charas, cocaine, ganja and other powders and crystals whose confirmation as psychotropic substances will come after laboratory analysis.
More arrests and raids are expected in the coming days as those already in custody have begun to reveal the drug links that exist in the State and beyond. The drug trail from Goa reaches not just Bollywood, for some of those arrested had earlier been alleged to have provided drugs to film industry personalities, it possibly goes elsewhere too and the network could be far more spread out than it is currently known. The fact that some of those arrested in Goa in the last few had also been held in Hyderabad on drug related charges is a pointer in this direction.
Herald had reported in the past that the metros are receivers of narcotics from Goa and that the State is turning into a manufacturing and transit point for a large variety of drugs. Raids by the local authorities have unearthed cannabis growers who are small time growers, but it has taken the national agencies to uncover the bigger fish, as for instance the raid on a synthetic drug ketamine manufacturing unit at the Pissurlem industrial estate a couple of years ago. If Goa hopes to put a stop to this, if the war against the drug trade is to ever be a success, local intelligence needs to be stepped up several notches.
For that to happen it has to be a multi-pronged effort, not restricted to busting small dealers that will create a minor dent in the trade, but it should be a frontal attack on the drug lords that will shatter the illegal business in the State. The recent raids of the Narcotics Control Bureau could have dealt a major blow to the illegal trade, but this is not enough to end it.
It needs more to completely break the back of the narcotics trafficking in the State. It can happen if there is a will – political and also of the police. This is relevant because, Goa’s experience with fighting narcotics has never been exemplary. In the past the State has seen how there existed a police-drug mafia nexus that allowed the illegal trade to flourish. Such connections have to be severed, otherwise the illegal trade will always continue with the law enforcers conveniently looking the other way. That’s a challenge for the government and the law enforcement authorities who, acting in tandem, can free Goa from the narcotics trade.
