THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Police have joined hands with seven other police units from southern states and Union territories to form a coordination centre to share information on drugs and fugitives, with an eye on cracking down drug and criminal rackets having inter-state connections. The centre was set up three weeks ago during a meeting of senior officials of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, highly placed sources said.
During the meeting, it was decided to pass on information and coordinate actions in drug cases that have inter-state ramifications. The move is expected to help the police in curbing the supply of drugs to Kerala as it can now proactively get police from other states to crack down on drug rackets that are based in their areas of jurisdictions.
The state police have also entered into a similar understanding with Goa Police on sharing inputs on drug rackets and taking coordinated actions against them. The police have long suspected that synthetic drugs are being brought to the state from Karnataka and Goa.
“The big positive of this system is that when we catch a person with drugs and he spills beans on the involvement of people or rackets based out of Bengaluru, we can alert the Karnataka Police about it. They can immediately act on the information we provide and there will be follow-up action from their side. This is a win-win situation for all the police forces involved in the activity,” said a senior police officer.
Kerala has been facing an unprecedented surge in use of synthetic drugs and several gruesome murders that took place in recent times were attributed to drug abuse. The state police had launched a special anti-narcotics drive from February 22 to March 1, during which the 17,426 suspects were checked. The cops arrested 2,854 people for possessing drugs and registered 2,762 cases.
According to a senior official, a WhatsApp group with the nodal officers of each police unit as members has been formed to share information. “We hope this step would help in cutting of drug supply to the state as the intoxicants are being smuggled from outside. Our intention behind taking part in such an exercise is to destroy the origin and supply route of drugs. Without an inter-state action plan, that’s not possible,” said an officer.
Though the centre was started recently, it has become active and the result so far has been encouraging, the officer added.
“During the special drive we conducted recently, we were registering up to 300 cases daily. That has now come down to 100. That means our action has had an effect,” the officer added.
Apart from drug cases, the police forces involved in the exercise will also share details of the criminals who are absconding. The details of such people, who were involved in grave crimes such as murder, rape and dacoity, will be shared.
2,854people arrested for possessing drugs during a special anti-narcotics drive from February 22 to March 1
Move to help cops curb drug supply to state
The centre includes police forces of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep
State police also entered into a similar understanding with Goa Police on sharing inputs on drug rackets to take coordinated actions
The move is expected to help police curb drug supply to Kerala as they can proactively get police from other states to crack down on drug rackets based in their areas of jurisdictions