CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu police set a record in drug seizures in 2022. Narcotics worth at least Rs 30 crore were seized and 13,000 suspects arrested during the year. Also, in a first, the state police froze suspects’ properties worth about Rs 18 crore, departmental data accessed by TNIE showed.
The drugs seized include ganja, pharmaceutical tablets such as Nirtovet and Ephedrine and chemicals such as LSD, MDMA and cocaine. TN police seized over 26,000 kg ganja in 2022 compared with 20,430 kg in 2021 and arrested 13,000 suspects compared with 9,340 in 2021. The Chennai city police seized a record 1,759 kg ganja and arrested 1,022 suspects in 2022 compared with 1,460 kg in 2021.
“As the supply of hardcore drugs whittled down due to the seizures, a shift to pharmaceutical tablets was witnessed, with peddlers suggesting them to addicts,” said Shankar Jiwal, Commissioner of Police, Chennai city. In 2022, the police seized 65,380 tablets, with 52,612 from Chennai city alone; the number was just 11,000 in 2021.
Speaking to TNIE, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP), Enforcement Bureau, said drug smugglers used to bring 300-400 kg ganja to Tamil Nadu from Andhra Pradesh (AP) in lorries. “Once we started to seize the vehicles and arrest the smugglers, they resorted to smuggling smaller quantities (10-30 kg) in trains; we curbed that as well.”
Shankar Jiwal said there were also instances of ganja smuggling on two-wheelers, transporting 4-5 kg a trip. The Tiruvallur police, tasked with preventing drug smuggling from AP, seized around 1,263 kg ganja in 2022 compared with 590 kg in 2021. “Most ganja came from AP but once the supply was disrupted, we saw a rise in drugs entering Tamil Nadu from Odhisha and Tripura; the peddlers posed as migrant labourers,” said Jiwal.
According to police, peddling of LSD, MDMA and cocaine concentrated in cities. In Chennai in 2022, 462 LSD stamps, six grams of MDMA and 25 grams of cocaine were seized—worth `40 lakh. “Last year we seized ganja-laced chocolates; Ephedrine; and cocaine for the first time,” said a senior police officer.
As for convictions, the Chennai police recorded a nine fold increase with 92 convictions in 2022 compared with only ten in 2021.
