Navi Mumbai saw a dip in narcotics cases by 60% in 2020. While 153 cases were registered in 2019, the figure came down to 61 in 2020.
The number of people arrested in 2019 were 249 from whom ₹3.01 crore worth of drugs were seized, while in 2020, a total of 86 people were arrested from whom drugs valued at ₹92.55 lakh were confiscated.
Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) officials said due to the pandemic, schools, colleges and pubs remained shut, and hence demand was low.
“With restrictions on movement and transportation means closed, supply of drugs was affected, leading to a decline in the number of cases and seizures in 2020,” senior police inspector Ravindra Budhwant, ANC, said. Consumers of drugs included labourers, drivers and students, he said.
Seizures made last year included 260 kg of ganja worth ₹39 lakh, and 2.309 kg of afeem valued at ₹23.11 lakh. Among the seizures in 2019 were 240 kg of ganja worth ₹71 lakh, 6.15 kg of charas valued at ₹31 lakh, and 3.7 kg of amphetamine powder worth ₹1.05 crore.
The ANC made this year’s first arrest in the city on January 11 when a Nigerian national identified as Ogoda Immanuel Uchechukvu (26) was nabbed from Koparkhairane. The police confiscated 19.66 gram of amphetamine powder worth ₹18,300 and 57 tablets of MDMA drugs worth ₹1.42 lakh from him.
The ANC was set up in Navi Mumbai in June 2016 by then police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan. In 2015, a total of 17 cases were registered with various police stations and 22 people were arrested. As many as 77 cases were registered in 2016, in which 142 people were arrested for peddling drugs worth ₹7.38 lakh. In 2017, a total of 54 cases were registered, 74 people were arrested, and drugs worth ₹13.23 lakh were seized.
Only 44 cases were registered and 80 people were arrested in 2018, making them the lowest and the fewest figures since the ANC was formed, while drugs worth ₹1.57 crore were confiscated.
The lowest seizure of drugs, as per their monetary value, was in 2020.
