Recent police raids have revealed that some college students are supplying and also consuming drugs and ganja in Krishna, NTR, West Godavari and Guntur districts.
Police officers have summoned their parents and counselled them, besides warning the students of severe action, if they are caught again.
“Drug peddlers and suppliers are targeting the youth, particularly students. We have observed that many students are getting addicted to drugs and are helping the peddlers,” says a police officer investigating the drug racket.
Due to lack of vigil by parents and bad company many students are becoming drug addicts and some of them are even maintaining links with the traffickers, he adds.
Surveillance
After the Mundra Port drug bust in Gujarat, which had reported links to Vijayawada, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Customs and Police officials have stepped up vigil.
The Customs and the Police officials have also unearthed a racket involving sale of ephedrine and MDMA, with links to Telangana, Tamil Nadu and other States. The drugs were being booked online and delivered through courier services.
“We have arrested about 15 persons in MDMA pills case, many of whom were students of various colleges in West Godavari district. They hail from Bhimavaram, Palakol, Mogaltur, Narsapuram and other places,” says a police officer.
The NTR District Police arrested the employees of a private courier company and the person who booked the ephedrine parcel to Australia from a courier office at Bharati Nagar in Vijayawada.
“Investigation revealed that Kuppuswamy Arunachalam Venkatesh, a trader from Tamil Nadu, came to Vijayawada several times, stayed in a hotel and booked ephedrine parcels,” says an investigator.
A few months ago, the Guntur police seized liquid ganja or Hash oil and arrested the students who were supplying it.
Police conducted awareness programmes against ganja in many colleges in Krishna and West Godavari districts, and explained to the students the consequences of getting involved in ganja cases.
“We appeal to parents to monitor the movements of their wards and urge students not to spoil their lives by getting addicted to vices,” says a police officer.
