The spurt in the cases of youngsters getting addicted to drugs and recurrent instances of their alleged involvement in smuggling and peddling of banned contraband are giving the City Police the jitters.
Wake-up call
The wake-up call came after the drug bust by a team of City Task Force (CTF) and Arilova police at a rave party reported from Rushikonda Beach on April 13. The probe team which has arrested six people including a DJ and the king pin, so far, say that it was probably the first time drugs such as Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) and Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and cocaine were seized in the city.
“For the first time, the dark side of the drug trade was exposed in this case. Investigation has revealed that the drugs were sourced through the ‘dark web’ using Bitcoins and this came as a surprise for us,” a senior police official said on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Parental counselling
More than the rave party case, what hounds the enforcement agency is the rampant smuggling, peddling of ganja.
“Easy availability of ganja in the interior areas of Visakha Agency and lack of parental counselling are pushing many youth into substance abuse. We have counselled a number of students. Several raided to nab ganja smugglers have revealed that the college going students are the main target of the illicit trade,” a senior police officer of East Division said.
Further, easy availability of sedatives such as Fortwin injections has kept the enforcement agencies on their toes. The officials said that the sedatives were being smuggled in large quantity from Odisha.
The recent arrest of two brothers from Peda Gantyada for their alleged involvement in 52 chain-snatching cases has revealed that they were addicted to Fortwin and took to crime to make easy money so that they could feed to their vices.
“We receive at least 15 people addicted to drugs, ganja and alcohol for counselling every month and a majority of them are youngsters,” said Uma Raj, a member of Green Valley Foundation.
Smugglers arrested
Last year, CTF teams arrested 117 ganja smugglers from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and about 2,149 kgs of contraband were seized. As many as 1,490 sedative injections and tablets such as proxyvon and cough syrup bottles were recovered from several youth.
