KOCHI: When peddlers are shifting their operations to the dark web and highly encrypted social media platforms for drug trafficking, the excise department- Kerala’s premier anti-narcotic enforcement agency- is struggling to tackle the rising menace as it does not have a dedicated cyber wing of its own to track down the illegal operators.Though the department has been knocking on the doors of the state government for the past several years, policy-level constraints are deterring authorities from allotting a cyber wing for the excise department.
In most of the cases in which LSD stamps and high-quality MDMA are seized, the suppliers are based abroad and they take orders through the dark web. Similarly, even peddlers operating inside Kerala operate through encrypted apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to sell drugs to customers. For detecting all these drug-trading channels, excise personnel have to depend on traditional methods of surveillance and investigation.
“In most of the cases in which small quantities of drugs are seized from customers, the inquiry leads us to the supplier. When we examine the mobile phone of the arrested person, information about suppliers is received. If the arrested person deletes the chats and call details of the supplier before the arrest, it would be hard to identify the people who supplied the drugs. Also, we don’t have any cyber experts who can retrieve the deleted contents from mobile phones or other electronic gadgets,” a top Excise official said.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not approved the excise department as a nodal agency. Only a nodal agency approved by TRAI can set up a cyber wing. Currently, the Kerala Police is the sole nodal agency approved by TRAI in the state. When excise and police operate under one umbrella in other states, in Kerala the two forces come under different departments. To get the tower location of a suspect and collect the call data record, excise has to approach the police cyber cell. Excise has appointed liaison officers to coordinate with the police and use the latter’s cyber infrastructure to conduct investigations into drug cases.
However, there are constraints in utilising the services of the police cyber cell.
“The issue is that the police cyber cells have to deal with police cases first. So it takes some time to get assistance from the police in tracing cyber footprints in our cases. Currently, we maintain cordial relations with the police to take forward our investigation. The delay can be avoided if we have a dedicated cyber wing. Also, cyber surveillance activities can help in busting several drug rackets that operate through online platforms,” he said.
In recent months, excise officers in Ernakulam busted several drug-peddling gangs that operate through social media platforms. Some of the busted groups operated social media channels and pages like ‘Acid Dropper Task Team’, ‘Third Eye’, ‘Disco Biscuit’, and ‘Padyappa Brothers’. “They communicate with their customers through code languages that normal people cannot recognise. A group named ‘Third Eye’ used to post the message ‘Candy ready’ on their social media handle to alert customers that they have drugs ready for sale. A dedicated cyber wing will help in monitoring drug peddling groups online and thwart their operations,” he said.