CHENNAI: A 23-year-old man was arrested by sleuths of Narcotic Intelligence Bureau (NIB) CID for allegedly possessing and selling illegal drugs in the city on Saturday evening.The accused was identified as J Sarath Saravanan (23) of Triplicane. He was a BBA degree holder from a popular university in the city.
Based on information that an youngster was selling narcotics to students and young professionals around Annanagar and Mogappair areas, sleuths nabbed Saravanan from a swimming pool academy at Mogappair East on Saturday evening. The seized contraband drugs were worth Rs 3.75 lakh.
“We made a police personnel contact Saravanan through an informant under the pretext of purchasing the drugs and he asked him to meet outside a swimming pool academy at Mogappair east,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police, NIB CID, Purushothaman.
Saravanan was working in a tyre-manufacturing unit for one year soon after completing his degree. Since he was not making enough money through his job, he started selling drugs to students, he said. “He attracted customers through his connections from college and bought the drugs through a dark website which he had learnt with the help of some foreign nationals in his college,” said the DSP. When he came to deliver the order, NIB sleuths nabbed him.
Police seized five Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) stamps, 23 MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) tablets, hashish (kind of extract from weed) and a bike from him.
He was later remanded to judicial custody.
“We need to create more awareness among youngsters to prevent them from getting addicted to drugs. Every time we go to colleges, we ask students to divert their attention to something else.
“Many boys who are younger than 22-years-old are involving in crime and are addicted to such drugs. Once they get used to hallucination caused due to the chemical reaction of the drugs, they will do anything to get them,” says Fr Edward, from Katpadi, Vellore who works with rehabilitation of youngsters addicted to drugs.
The DSP said many men make young girls fall victim to such drugs. When the girls are in dire need of the drugs, the men take advantage of it and sexually harass the girls.
Synthetic drugs
MDMA, when taken gives a high for around two hours and comes with side effects like brain
damage
LSD, is an illegal drug that alters the senses and causes hallucinations. One of the dangers is that LSD can trigger a long-term psychotic state or induce schizophrenia in susceptible individuals