KOCHI: In a worrying trend, the Excise Department has found that inter-state drug cartels operating in the Ernakulam district are using new recruits, that too youngsters in their 20s from Perumbavoor, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam to smuggle in synthetic drugs like MDMA and LSD from Karnataka. Though Excise officials are aware of the established links of Ernakulam-based drug rackets with cartels in Karnataka, the drive against them became more challenging recently with the rackets using all fresh faces. “The rackets lure the youngsters by offering money and using the pandemic-induced crisis that has affected many people’s incomes,” said a senior Excise intelligence officer.
Excise officials said the fresh faces are being exclusively recruited by rackets to avoid detection. “If a member of a racket is caught once by Excise or police, then he/she is not deployed by the cartels for any other high volume assignment. The cartels know that the agencies will mark such members and keep track of their activities,” the officer said.
Excise Deputy Commissioner P Ashok Kumar said now, they could find a lot of new faces whenever a drug trafficking racket was busted. “We follow a strict surveillance protocol tracking the activities of racket members whose details we have. We have upped monitoring to counter the activities of drug rackets that have been using fresh agents,” he said, adding that they could get details about the activities of the cartels when an Excise team in Thrissur on Tuesday busted two smugglers who were bringing in MDMA from Bengaluru to Perumbavoor in a car.
The arrested were Anshad, 27, and Sinshad, 25. The duo hailed from Perumbavoor and were carrying the MDMA for distribution in Perumbavoor and other rural areas in the district. “We are collecting more details from the accused to track the details of other members of the racket,” said Ashok Kumar.