Submits list of drug pushers to DGP
VIBHA VERMA
vibha@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The failure of government machinery to arrest drug lords operating in the coastal belt was highlighted by a BJP legislator who gave a list of people he claimed were pushing drugs in large quantity on the coastal belt.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo in a confidential communication to Director General of Police Kishan Kumar has submitted information about the drug lords who use peddlers to push narcotics in this tourist heaven.
Lobo said that he was forced to take this step after local youth began falling prey to narcotics and blamed the police department for their failure in controlling the drug trade.
“It is going on for many years. Local boys and girls are consuming drugs. A time will come when it will be difficult to get them out of this addiction…Police are either not sincere or not interested to crackdown. But I haven’t lost hope in all of them,” he said.
Lobo told Herald that he has already submitted names of four persons, whose arrest can help break the backbone of a flourishing narcotics trade in the beach belt. He said that he has already held series of meetings with the senior police officers, giving them all the information, which he had received from his men in the constituency.
Lobo claimed that the narcotics sold by them are popular among the drug peddlers and the addicts are ready to pay any price for its purchase. “They are the main source for selling drugs. People know if they want any type of drug, it will be available with them,” he said.
However, senior police officers claim that they have already begun working on the tip-off even as more teams are being formed to collect intelligence of drug trade happening in the other parts of the coastal zone in both the districts.
“Besides information that we have received from Calangute, other places and suspected people are also under the scanner of the anti narcotics cell,” a senior officer told Herald. It is learnt that some national and international drug players are involved. “Our informants are on the job. Raids would begin soon,” he said. The involvement of Goans has not been ruled out.
The ANC officials have however ruled out drug related activities happening in the college campus. “We have not stumbled upon cases of drug abuse in the college premises. It may be happening outside,” the officer said.
However, there have been cases where on two occasions security guards attached to a well known educational institution were arrested for selling drugs to students. Several foreigners ~mainly Nigerians, have been arrested in the past for pushing drugs, while the biggest haul was made from two Israeli nationals – David Driham alias Dudu and Yaniv Benaim alias Atala, three years ago that led to arrests of policemen and exposed the lethal drug mafia-police nexus.
