NEW DELHI: There has been a three times increase in the seizure of heroin from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021 which is approximately 300 per cent surge, said Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Director-General S N Pradhan on Tuesday.
The NCB chief revealed the figure while inaugurating a ‘Darkathon 2022’ – an event to find out solutions to counter drug trafficking through the darknet.
Pradhan said there has been an ‘exponential’ rise in the seizure of drugs in India in the last five years with the darknet and the maritime route emerging as the most preferred modes of trafficking. The NCB chief attributed the enhanced seizures to effective.
Darknet refers to the hidden internet platforms that can only be accessed using specialised software and pre-configured communication protocols for anonymous communication.
Drugs cartels and syndicates are known to use this to stay under the radar of law enforcement agencies.
“In 5 years, the country has witnessed exponential increase in seizure of heroin from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021 which is approximately a 300 per cent increase. Similarly, there is increase of 172 per cent in seizure of opium, from 2,551 kg in 2017 to 4,386 kg in 2021, and 191 per cent increase in seizure of cannabis, from 3,52,539 kg in 2017 to 6,75,631 kg in 2021,” Pradhan said.
In a statement, Pradhan also cited the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) World Drug Report 2021 which stated that 94 per cent of the sales in darknet markets are related to drugs.
The issues being examined in the ‘Darkathon’ are crawling of the darkweb to identify and catalogue active and genuine darknet markets selling drugs, patrolling the darknet markets to identify traffickers and the drugs they offer and digital foot printing of active traffickers.
