A total of 244 persons were arrested across the State in the Kerala Police’s Operation D-Hunt special drive as part of a crackdown on drug dealers on Saturday.
MDMA, hashish oil, brown sugar and several kilograms of ganja estimated at several lakhs were seized from the arrested persons. Ahead of the drive, the police force had cast a surveillance net on drug dealers and local-level distributor networks, before moving in to nab them.
The maximum number of persons were arrested from Kochi city — 61. The largest quantity of MDMA, 37.41 g, was seized from Kollam city while 22.85 g was seized from Thiruvananthapuram rural.
The police had checked 1,373 persons suspected of possessing drugs, out of which 244 were arrested. The drive, based on a directive from State Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Sahib, was led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) M.R. Ajithkumar, who heads the Anti-Narcotics Task Force.
The newly formed Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) coordination cell did the ground-level coordination with the respective District Police Chiefs. The police had prepared a database of dealers in various areas and monitored the movements of those who had served jail terms in drug-related cases before launching the operation.
Information
Public can pass on information about drug dealers at the anti-narcotic control room (contact - 94979 27797). The identity of the informers will be kept confidential.
Mr. Sahib said that more such drives would be carried out as part of Operation D-Hunt to disrupt drug-dealing networks.
