KOCHI : Police personnel operating in intelligence units usually lie low, despite playing a crucial role in cracking major criminal cases. Of late, several hardcore criminals and drug peddlers were nabbed after months-long covert surveillance by these officers from the state and district special branches.
One such incident involved the seizure of 1.81kg MDMA worth over Rs 2 crore in Kochi last month. Four youths, who were smuggling in drugs under the pretext of short filmmaking, were arrested in a meticulous operation.
The sequence of events began in November 2023 when Vaibhav Saxena assumed charge as the chief of Ernakulam Rural Police. He directed his officers to curb the escalating drug menace, emphasising the need for a stringent crackdown on peddlers.
“The chief picked his best men for monitoring individuals with a history of narcotic cases. A list was prepared, and a team was deployed to track them,” says a district special branch officer, who was part of the operation.
One of the names that blipped on the police radar was of Nikhil Prakash, a North Paravoor resident, who had been previously involved in a narcotics case. “He was into filmmaking and the second-hand car business. People told us that he was quite well-off and owned several vehicles. That raised suspicion,” recalls the officer.
“People often venture into the narcotics trade for quick money. We tracked his movements. He was staying with some friends at a rented house. Several casting-calls posters were stuck on its walls. We collected more information about his friends, closely watching their moves.”
Officers noted that there wasn’t any film work going on at the house. Instead, Nikhil and his friends constantly travelled to other states, mostly Delhi.
“Nikhil used to fly to Delhi. After a few days, his friends would join him. Later, they would return to Kerala in a pre-owned car. These cars, which were bought from Delhi, remained unsold on the rented house compound. We started tracking Nikhil’s Delhi connection,” says the officer.
The team found that the gang had been buying drugs from Delhi and smuggling them into Kerala. “In the first week of December, we received info that Nikhil’s friends – Nidhin Viswam, Nidhin K Venu aka Thamburu, and Amith Kumar – had arrived from Delhi in a Haryana registered car. We swooped down on them,” the officer says.
In the raid held on December 3, police recovered 1.81kg of MDMA from the trio. Some packets were found in the rented house, others concealed inside a spare tyre of a pre-owned car on the compound.
“They were stocking MDMA in large quantities, anticipating high demand during the Christmas - New Year season. Nikhil, who had gone into hiding, was arrested after four days,” says the officer.
“Following the successful op, sub-inspector C R Biju, of the Ernakulam Rural special branch, received an internal award for his crucial role in detecting the case. With drug peddlers taking orders through encrypted social media platforms, it is hard to detect their entire activities. We still rely on human intelligence gathering skills. It’s a time-consuming procedure requiring a lot of patience. Often, the public doesn’t know our role. But that’s the nature of this job.”