KOCHI: A recent seizure of 6.4kg of ganja during a routine vehicle check in the city turned out to be a big breakthrough for city police as the probe into the seizure revealed that the accused were using children for drug trafficking.
Police officials said though there were inputs that a few drug rackets were using children to deliver contraband to various locations in the city, it was for the first time that they got concrete lead into the activities of the racket. Police even made a submission in this regard before the sessions court on October 23 when one of the accused, Vishnu,24, of Mulamthuruthy, moved a bail petition.
“We have launched a detailed probe into the activities of the racket,” said a police officer. As per the probe, three of the four persons arrested in connection with the incident are into recruiting children for trafficking drugs. Police said a 17-year-old involved in the case is yet to be arrested and more details about the racket will emerge once the minor is nabbed. The other arrested persons are Aravind, 21, of Eroor and Haris, 25, of Ernakulam. Police have booked the accused under Sections 20(B)II(A), 20(b)II(B) & 29 of NDPS Act.
It was on September 30 around 6pm that the police found the accused in possession of 6.45kg of ganja near Overbridge, Refinery Road in Tripunithura. Police said the racket used youngsters and minors to transport the contraband from one destination to another. Police sources said the rackets first make the youngsters a drug addict before utilising them as mules. “Many of the minors who have landed in our net are suspected to be drug addicts. But it’s really hard to identify whether they are drug abusers unless they openly reveal it. Since they are minors, we have a lot of restrictions as it’s a sensitive issue,” said an officer.
Though the city police had, two years back, conducted a performance analysis of Abon Kit for detecting drug abuse based on a report of Vadodara city police that said were successfully using the kit to detect persons who consumed drugs, it didn’t take off as planned due to technical issues.
In fact, the performance analysis in Kochi city came up good after the test on nine out of 10 persons addicted to different narcotic substances proved positive in examining the abusers of MDMA, LSD, hashish oil, ganja, nitrazepam pills etc. However, the move hit a roadblock after some technical difficulties were reported regarding the device including its legal sanctity before the court of law.
kochi on ncb radar
In September, the Narcotics Control Bureau had made two major seizures in Kochi. Following this, the central agency decided to monitor the movement of courier packages to thwart the smuggling of drugs and narcotic substances to and from Kochi.