Arun M By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The closure of liquor vends in the city has given birth to an alarming trend. Scores of gullible youths are now being roped in by criminals to procure and supply contraband to customers, say city police.

On April 29, the Shadow Police arrested four youths, including a minor, with ganja and Nitrozone tablets. Thomas Jose, 19, Payyappilli Vettil, Kozhikode, Suryakiran, 29, from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and Ashar, 18, of Ashar Manzil, Alumkadavu, Kollam, were among the arrested. Cops seized around 1.25 kg of ganja and 10 Nitrozone tablets from their possession.

As selling ganja brings handsome profits, several city youths are taking up the ‘job opportunity’. The mafia lures students to act as carriers and even suppliers to provide drugs to student customers. Eyeing the profit, several students have started procuring the contraband from TN and Andhra Pradesh thus eliminating the need for middlemen.

On Tuesday, the Shadow Police arrested nine youths with ganja and Nitrazepam tablets. They were sent to various police stations. Keeleri-native Manu, 22, and Athani-natives Sivaprasad, 22, Shyam Peter, 22, and Prasad, 32, were handed over to the Thrikkakara police.

Arun, 18, and Nahaz, 18 - both from Varapuzha - and Jithin, 18 from Edayakunnam were nabbed from Ponekkara with 350 gm of ganja and handed over to the Elamakkara police.

Shemin, 20 and Vishnu, 20, both from Maniyar in Pathanamthitta were arrested with 10 Nitrazepam tablets and handed over to the Kadavanthra police. Three minors involved in ganja peddling were also nabbed with 250 gm of ganja in their possession. They were handed over to the Palarivattom police. They had been under the Shadow Police’s scanner for some time.

“We have intensified our surveillance to nab the drug mafia in the city. Owing to the lesser availability of liquor, youths have switched to consuming contraband. LSD drugs like Nitrazepam tablets can provide a ‘high’ for 12 hours without anybody identifying it,” said Shadow Police SI Honey K Das. City Police Commissioner M P Dinesh appealed to the public to inform the Shadow Police of any drug supplying activities via 9497980430.

Thomas Jose, 19, Payyappilli Veettil, Kozhikode, Suryakiran, 29, from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and Ashar, 18, of Ashar Manzil, Alumkadavu, Kollam, were among the arrested. Cops seized around 1.25 kg of ganja and 10 Nitrozone tablets from their possession.

Goa native held on charges of supplying party drugs in city

The Excise sleuths probing the case pertaining to the seizure of drugs worth Rs 84 lakh here have arrested a Goa native on charges of supplying party drugs in the city. Deepak S Kalan Gudkar, 48, was arrested from Mapusa in Northern Goa, said an Excise officer. Acting on a tip-off, the Excise sleuths approached him posing as customers and took him into custody.

The investigators had also taken Saneesh Sarvothaman, who was arrested by the Excise last month, along with them to Goa for identifying the racketeers and their area of operation. During interrogation, the accused confessed he had been buying synthetic drugs from a Nigerian, who was reportedly procuring the same from J&K.

All the operations were being managed via WhatsApp using codes like ‘score cheitho? (Did you score?)’ to sell drugs. The sleuths also recovered a hand-held machine used to crush ganja before filling it in cigarettes or other smoking apparatuses.

'How to’ videos that demonstrate ways to take the drugs were also circulated by the accused mainly to attract new customers, the cops found.

38 persons, all but two aged below 25 years, were arrested under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on charges of drug smuggling in operations held in the past two weeks.

8 minors were also among the arrested.

The cops recovered more than 5 kg of ganja and 50 Nitrazepam tablets from their possession.

One of the arrested was nabbed while coming to Kochi with the drug he procured from Tamil Nadu. He had barely turned 15. All the arrested were unemployed, said police officers.

The inspection of the mobile phones of the arrested revealed girls were also their regular customers.