THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of women and under-aged boys involved in drug cases (NDPS) is increasing in the state, as per the Excise Department statistics. In the last 19 months, 145 women and 102 boys were arraigned as accused by the department as per the official data, which was accessed by TNIE.
During this period, the Excise Department arraigned a total of 12,536 people as accused. The number last year was 7,780, while 4,756 people were arraigned till August 2024. The number of women arraigned in 2023 was 85, while 60 were arraigned in the first seven months of this year.
In 2023, 63 boys below the age of 18 were found involved in drug cases, while that number stood at 39 until August 2024.
The most number of women listed as accused were above 25 years. As many as 101 women of that age category were found involved in drug peddling or drug abuse.
As many as 54 of them were detected in 2023, while the rest 47 were detected in 2024.
The data also revealed that it was mostly youths, men and women, of the age 18-25, who were involved in drug cases. As per the official data, 6,377 of the accused were between 18 and 25.
An Excise senior officer said the involvement of minors, women and youths in drug cases has been alarmingly increasing. “Minors are mostly caught while using it. Only rarely are they caught while peddling drugs. In the case of women, they are caught for drug abuse as well as drug peddling. Drug abuse has surged among youths. The involvement of youth has changed the operations of the drug-peddling gangs. Now, the hand-to-hand exchange of money is rare. One person is entrusted to receive money from the customers using a QR code, while another person drops the drug consignment in the vicinity of the customer. These changes happened after youngsters became actively involved in drug peddling,” the officer said.
Regarding the minors caught in drug cases, the officer said they were produced before the chamber of the judge and remanded to juvenile homes.