THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown don’t seem to have stopped the influx of drugs into the state. However, the effective intervention of Excise and police officials has prevented it from getting distributed and reaching innocent hands. Three major seizures were recorded in a span of one month. The Excise enforcement squad recently seized 101kg of ganja and 3kg of hashish oil at Nagaroor, and police seized another 55kg of ganja at Vellarada. TNIE chases the drug trails in the capital city
In September, two major drug hauls happened in the capital city— 500kg ganja was seized from a container lorry at Attingal and 203kg from two cars in Balaramapuram. Between July and October, 953.76kg of ganja was seized in the district. “The large drug seizures aren’t linked with sales in Thiruvananthapuram. These come from different parts of the country, are stocked here, and transported according to demand from wholesale dealers,” says R Gopakumar, former deputy excise commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram.
A majority of ganja seized in the district comes from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where they are farmed on a major scale. “The harvest time of marijuana collided with the lockdown this year. More than half of the harvested plant is converted into hashish oil and exported to foreign countries, which didn’t happen due to lockdown. So, it is now flowing into the state in bulk quantities,” says an official of the State Excise Enforcement Squad (SEES).
However, according to the official, the drug dealers have now come up with different ways to conceal their trade. They are now using container lorries, pickup vans and Taurus lorries to transport ganja and other drugs. “The lockdown period was effective for them as there were a lot of lorries transporting essential items from other states. They used to transport drugs on those vehicles,” he says.
According to Gopakumar, at times it is not possible to unpack a full container and check. “The dealers use lorries or vans that carry vegetables or poultry. Some vehicles may be coming with a huge load, and the officials won’t be able to fully unpack it and search. They keep the ganja hidden in specially made chambers or inside door pads. Yet, the Excise department succeeded in spotting many such attempts,” adds Gopakumar.
Continuing fight
P V Elias, the newly appointed deputy excise commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram, says that the Excise department is determined to continue with bulk ganja seizures. “The kingpins behind the drug peddling will be taken into custody by the Excise department. Also, we hope to get a lot of new information as we spread the investigation to marijuana farms. This will help cut the flow of drugs into the district,” he adds.