A special drive to expose drug pushers who target students with costly synthetic drugs is underway in Kozhikode city limits noticing a suspicious spike in inter-State drug smuggling attempts. The District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF), functioning under the Narcotic Cell, is now coordinating the special drive with the support of various local police stations.
Special teams have been constituted to support the district-level squad. Plainclothesmen will be mainly part of such squads to carry out flash inspections on premises of suspected educational institutions including schools and colleges. The drive, which will also cover suspected vehicles, will go on till August 31.
“In our probe, it was found that local carriers mostly depend on wholesale synthetic drug dealers in Bengaluru. As they usually smuggle small quantities of such costly ecstasy drugs, it is quite difficult to seize them on the way,” said Assistant Commissioner (Narcotic Cell) Prakashan C. Padannayil. He said the drive was launched with a mission to crack down on local peddlers’ network and identify young addicts in need of de-addiction.
Rehabilitation
According to Mr. Padannayil, many students who were found addicted in the previous checking drives were given effective rehabilitation support and counselling. “We will do the same after this drive too. For the Narcotic Cell, there is no long break between special drives,” he added.
A senior police officer, now coordinating the district-level probe, said the squads even came across WhatsApp groups created for planning drug trafficking and vehicle theft. “The details of one such group came to light while checking the seized phone of a teenager who was recently arrested on theft charge in the city. He was having close contacts with synthetic drug suppliers and users, the officer said.
Police officers who were part of field-level inspections against drug trafficking said the city witnessed no less than seven major drug seizures within the last eight months in which students, including girls, below the age of 20, had key roles. Many parents were totally ignorant about the deviant behaviour of their children, the officers said.
