RAVE PARTY BUSTED IN GOA, 23 ARRESTED

PANAJI: Twenty three people, including three foreigners, were arrested after the crime branch raided a rave party where drugs were allegedly being used in North Goa district, police said on Sunday. Narcotics worth over ~ 9 lakh were seized from the party which was going on amid the Covid-19 pandemic at a villa in Vagator village under Anjuna police station limits on Saturday night, they said. Two women from Russia and one from Czech Republic were among those arrested.

PANAJI: The Goa Police busted a ‘rave’ party at Firangpani Villas, a hotel in Vagator, late Saturday night seizing narcotics worth ~9 lakh and arresting 23 persons, including foreigners.

“We received information that a party was being organised on the intervening night of August 15-16. Immediately three teams of the Crime Branch raided the premises and detained over 20 persons. Upon thorough search, narcotics drugs — cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy tablets and charas — were detected in sizable quantities and worth over Rs9 lakh. Three of the accused are foreigner women,” the Goa Police said in a statement. The police booked the organisers under the NDPS Act and also for endangering public safety by organising the party during the pandemic. The party was organised by foreigners, according to the police.

During the first weekend of August, an ‘underground’ party organised by well-connected persons on private property came to light after a brawl that started at the party spilled onto the streets, prompting the police to book the organisers.

Tourism in Goa has taken a huge hit due to the pandemic and brought the party scene to a halt, which has gone underground, on a smaller scale. Tourists, too, have begun to return since the state was reopened, but in limited numbers and that too mainly those who are willing to drive down for fear of contracting the virus while travelling.