CHENNAI: The city police on Wednesday seized `10 lakh worth high-end drugs from a peddler who was allegedly targeting the IT employees and youngsters in rave parties in southern parts of the city.
Police identified the peddler as 32-year-old Nikhil Tiwari, a native of Uttar Pradesh, who was working for an IT company in the city until a few years ago when he quit the job to take up drug peddling full time, police said.
G Shashank Sai, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Adyar, who was supervising the case, told Express, “There were reports that synthetic and hallucinogenic drugs are trending among youngsters and IT employees in the city, especially around the East Coast Road. We got a tip-off that the drugs were supplied during parties organised at specific resorts and beach houses. Our team of policemen got the contact of a peddler and posing as a customer, they paid the amount. When the peddler handed over the consignment in a house at Tiruvanmiyur, we surrounded and nabbed him.”
Police said the drug peddling network was functioning through “dark websites”, which have, at least, four-level password authentication and the payments were made through cryptocurrencies. The drugs were mostly smuggled from foreign countries and locally despatched through India Post by hiding the contraband inside the parcels. Since these synthetic and hallucinogenic drugs are very small in size, they often escape the radar.
From Nikhil Tiwari, police seized 20 gm of MDMA, 62 tablets of Ecstasy (a brand name of MDMA) and five stamp papers of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD). Experts say these high-end drugs could have a disastrous impact on its users. “Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as molly, when taken, gives the user a high for around two hours and comes with side-effects like brain damage. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, is an illegal drug that alters the senses and cause hallucinations. One of the dangers is that LSD can trigger a long-term psychotic state or induce schizophrenia in susceptible individuals. These hallucinatory drugs can leave the person with mental instability, blurred visions and many other forms of physical damage,” says Dr Bruno, a Puducherry-based psychiatrist.
The special team comprised Assistant Commissioner of Police Taramani, A Subbarayan, Police
Inspector Christin Jayasil and some Sub-Inspectors.The city police said they were trying to track others involved in the network, but the task could be challenging, given that most of the transactions happen through darknet (websites and network that are difficult to trace due to use of masked IP addresses). “Most of the people who consume these drugs are from very rich families and hence are able to afford such costly drugs. The peddlers have almost the entire transactions through dark websites and transactions are also through cryptocurrencies,” said Subbarayan. Nikhil Tiwari has been remanded in judicial custody and further investigations are on.