KOCHI: The city police have decided to strengthen coordination with the associations of residential apartments after intelligence inputs revealed that drug rackets are renting residential apartments to carry out their clandestine trafficking activities. Police exposed the modus operandi of the rackets when they busted a three-member gang including a young woman from an apartment situated in the heart of the city a few days ago. “Numerous vacant apartments are available on rent in the city and the rackets pay hefty amounts as rent. They use these flats to mainly carry out their trade.
People buy and consume drugs at these places,” said a city special branch officer. “A majority of the owners of these apartments are NRKs (Non-resident Kearalites) and the third party brokers finalise the deal for giving the apartments on rent. The owners do not know the inmates -- the rent is just transferred every month to the bank account of the owner,” the officer said.
City assistant commissioner K Lalji said the police have devised their means to gather intelligence on the activities of the drug rackets in the city. “We have established a strong network with apartment associations in the city. We can bust drug rackets based on the inputs we receive from reliable sources.
Police have been coordinating with apartment associations and they have been advised to share inputs if they find any suspicious activities,” said Lalji. He added that the apartment associations have been entrusted with the task to collect the details of each visitor and identification documents of the inmates.
“We follow certain guidelines prescribed by the police and we maintain a file which comprises a copy of the identification document of the main member of each flat in the apartment building. Details of the visitors to the flats are also collected by the apartment security,” said Annie George, secretary of an apartment owners’ association.