Recent NCB raids have zeroed in on Usap village, one of the growing centers
Rs 25 lakh of charas found during seizure of ‘vegetable truck’ at border last year
Locals confirm that boys from Goa also come on bikes to pick up stuff from the farms
VIBHA VERMA
vibha@herald-goa.com
TILLARI- KENDRE: The reason why this story needs to be told again is while anti-narcotics agencies were looking North to Shimla and west to the big wide world, trucks of charas hidden beneath fruit and vegetables have been making their way to Goa from Sindhudurg.
Vast acres of dense forest at Tillari-Kendre in Sindhudurg district, considered a prime hub for cultivating charas, were purchased by groups of Kerala businessmen years ago when the villagers were rehabilitated to nearby villages after the canal for the Tillari irrigation project came up.
Conversations at Tillari-Kendre with locals and with the lowest rung of the police constabulary who are in touch with what’s going on, revealed the produce is clandestinely smuggled to Goa via the Dodamarg route using vegetable-laden tempos and trucks. The villagers, who have been witness to this illegal trade, with Keralites as producers and others as transporters, do not deny this.
“This community has divided itself into many groups who have been assigned specific tasks right from arranging the required logistics to alerting them about possible raids by the police or anti-drugs agencies,” a former Sawantwadi police sub-inspector told this reporter.
Interestingly, they don’t have more than two to three persons accompanying the vehicle while crossing the border to avoid coming under the police radar. “The vehicles are stacked with bananas, pineapples and vegetables.
But this is just the top layer because marijuana or charas occupies the rest of the space,” one of the local villagers revealed.
One of the regular ‘cultivators’ had however run out of luck when a hired-truck carrying the consignment to Goa was caught along the border area on the Maharashra side last year. This seizure is on record. Sources say that this consignment was worth some Rs 22-25 lakh. But their business still thrives date even as the local police have denied large scale cultivations.
“We have not come across any such activity so far. We will however search the suspected locations based on media inputs and local informants, who have been activated,” Dodamarg Police Inspector Jaykumar Suryavanshi said.
What is even more disturbing is that the narcotics’ peddlers are part of larger chain connecting the producers to the buyers. Locals on condition of anonymity admit that even Goan youth work as carriers, transporting the ‘packets’ from undisclosed destination to the beaches of the State. Unfortunately, unemployed youth in Sindhudurg district are also part of this network.
“Goan boys come on their bikes to take the consignment at a decided location. They are paid to encourage its distribution to as many people and at different places in Goa,” a Goan resident, living at Kasarpal near Dodamarg, said.
Director General of Goa Police T N Mohan conceded availability of drugs in Goa citing number of seizures in the recent past. “As a tourist spot, narcotics are here. We are nonetheless in constant touch with our counterparts in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Since we are entering into off season, our actual operation would begin post-monsoon,” he told Herald.
With increasing inputs about drugs smuggling, the anti-narcotics cell has set up an intelligence unit while it has also doubled its staff strength.
Interestingly, just a day after this reporter’s visit, Narcotics Control Bureau carried out a raid along the border areas of Dodamarg and Sawantwadi. A village called Usap, which leads to Kendre village, has come under the scanner of the agencies. A Marathi daily in Sindhudurg had recently reported about the alleged drug trafficking along the same route.
Herald also visited another village Sada and Mangueli but recently most portion of the ghat was burnt, indicating that drugs were grown. Locals, who are aware of the illegal trade are however reluctant to come out in open. “The place was burnt by the locals. I don’t know why,” a local woman said. This part of the ghat, which is nearly 10-15 kilometers in length grows ‘nachni’ according to the locals.
As Team Herald drove away from these fields, it brought back several unanswered questions but one ground reality. The plantations of Tillari-Kendre don’t just grow rubber, but hide a sticky truth. They grow drugs.
