CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is fast emerging as a major transit and shipment point for drug smuggling cartels, attracted by its 1,067-km coastline, excellent air connectivity with Southeast Asian countries, and major national and state highways that link the state to all parts of the country. Reports state the gangs deal in organically-derived drugs like heroin, cocaine, and cannabis, synthetic drugs like lysergic and diethylamide (LSD, widely referred to as acid), and drug precursors such as ketamine and pseudoephedrine.
Enforcement agencies say the cartels are smuggling increasingly larger quantities of contraband. Eighty-six kg of ephedrine was seized in the first half of 2017, or three times the amount confiscated in 2016. They seized 115 kg of heroin across Tamil Nadu this year, dwarfing confiscations in the past six years, and registered a 25 per cent increase in amphetamine seizures from 2016. Tuticorin police seized 5 kg of heroin three weeks ago and the Sri Lankan Navy arrested Ramswaram fishermen for possession of around 13 kg of the drug. “The drug is mainly sourced from two areas: across Afghanistan, and the northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, from where the excess poppy is legally cultivated by farmers for medicinal purposes,” Said Narcotics Control Bureau Chennai zonal director A Bruno.
A senior Tamil Nadu police officer said consumption in Sri Lanka is on the rise and the country's market is lucrative for those in the trade. “TN coastline is used to ferry drugs like heroin and ganja to Southeast Asian countries.” The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence busted a small manufacturing facility a week ago, in Red Hills, Chennai, and confiscated 90 kg of heroin, 56 kg of pseudoephedrine, and 11 kg of methamphetamine. While NCB regularly tracks postal and courier networks for packages of LSD stamps after investigators found evidence of this modus operandi in Kancheepuram district.
However, one officer admits that the bureau has only been able to identify middlemen in the network and investigators are still trying to identify the kingpins in the multi-state and international drug smuggling cartels. “Enforcement agencies are working together to identify and break up drug smuggling gangs. We have strengthened coastal monitoring networks to intercept drugs on the high seas,” Bruno said. “We have formed special squads in demarcated areas across the state to track drug trafficking by road.”
