KOCHI: City Police Commissioner A Akbar on Wednesday said 1,359 drug cases were registered in Kochi in 2023 following the strengthening of anti-narcotics enforcement activities in the city. He was speaking to reporters elaborating on the policing activities initiated in Kochi.
According to Akbar, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act cases registered in Kochi witnessed a rise in 2023 compared to the previous years. He raised concern about the increasing number of MDMA abuse and peddling cases being reported across the city.
“The increase in the number of NDPS cases showcases that enforcement activities have strengthened here. We are detecting more cases. If the number of cases goes down, it does not indicate that drug peddling activities are not taking place. We recovered around 2kg of MDMA which is a real cause for concern. Also, ganja was seized in large quantity last year,” he said.
While 1,359 NDPS cases were registered last year, 1,551 people were arrested in the cases, as per the data shared by the Kochi City police. The police recovered 326.53kg of ganja, 283.66g of hashish oil and 1,959g of MDMA.
Recently, the Kochi police carried out a special drive named Jagrath under which 114 people absconding in various criminal cases were nabbed. Of this, 31 people were facing long-pending warrants from the respective courts.
Similarly, 37 people were facing non-bailable arrest warrants and 28 were wanted in criminal cases. The police also nabbed 18 people in the Goonda list. Raids were held in 114 places.
“Around 400 police personnel were part of the operation and 90 teams were formed to trace the absconding persons. Our team travelled till Kannur to arrest the accused persons. The cyber cell assisted us in tracing the criminals. The drive was conducted after two weeks of preparatory work,” he said.