136 drug smugglers held in less than two months

OPERATION ‘CLEAN SWEEP’ Jaipur city police filed 120 cases under the NDPS Act

JAIPUR: Operation ‘Clean Sweep’ launched by the crime branch of Jaipur city police in October this year has exposed how the illegal narcotics business flourishing in the state capital is ruining the lives of thousands of youngsters especially students.

Since launch of the operation on October 23, 120 cases were registered under relevant sect i o n s o f t h e NDPS Act t i l l December 3 and 136 smugglers were arrested.

“The operation i ncludes three major phases which are being run simultaneously. In the first phase, the peddlers are being identified, in the second phase, sources and network are been identified and in the last phase, rehabilitation of addicts is being done through NGOS, doctors and other experts,” said Anand Shrivastava, the man behind the launch of the operation.

“So far, drugs worth Rs 50 lakh have been recovered and 500 drug addicts have been sent to re-habilitation centres,” he added.

During the operation, the crime branch team found that the consumption of marijuana has become as common as other tobacco products like cigar e t t e s . The peddl e r s have adopted smart ways to sell the restricted drug from around taxi stands, tea stalls and street vendors.

City additional commissioner of police Ashok Gupta said that drugs mostly come f r o m Kar n a t a k a , Ker a l a , Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharahastra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and even from Himachal and Assam.

“The smugglers from outside state would smuggle them via train, buses inside consignments of clothes,” Gupta said.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (addl DCP), city crime branch, Vimal Singh said that i nterrogation of the arrested accused revealed that chain of the drug peddlers is an unorganized one.

“The big smugglers or what the peddlers in local parlance call ‘big fish’ from different states smuggle marijuana, smack and charas (cannabis sativa) to groups of small peddlers, who pack them in small plastic packets and sell them further,” he said.

The peddlers further sell these small packets of marijuana and charas to tea vendors and tobacco stalls located near

Jaipur East

Note: Jaipur city police is divided in four districts East, West, North, South

Items

Marijuana (ganja)

Smack

Poppy husk

Charas

Brown Sugar

Cocaine

Jaipur North

school, colleges and other residential areas where mostly students live.

“Some of them also do home delivery of this dangerous psychotropic substance,” Singh said.

A member o f t h e c r i me branch team requesting anonymity said that the smugglers also use different code words and lingo to sell marijuana.

“The c o d e words would change as per localities. In some areas, the agents would call it as ‘mal’, ‘pudiya’, ‘stuff’, ‘aghori’, ‘baba’ and some others would call it as ‘chota baby’ for small packet of 10gm,” he said.

“In some areas like Mansarovar, Kukas and Raja Park, you need to just say ‘hai kya?’, the peddler would automatically ask you about s mall or bi g packet. A small packet would cost around Rs 200, while a big packet range between Rs 500 and Rs 800,” the officer added.

“In order to free kids from the trap of marijuana, we are trying to trace down the student conduits who procure narcotics

Jaipur West

Jaipur South

from city or outside peddlers and sell them to students,” the officer said.

The common point which came out in the confessions of all the peddlers was that the student peddlers are indirectly part of a chain of illegal supply of drugs that are brought from outside the district and sold to students by local suppliers, which eventually reaches institutes. The crime branch is trying to break these links.

Singh said that not just individuals but families would also peddle t he restricted drug. “While there are individuals like Anwar Khan, who was arrested from the Bani Park police station area, who would peddle drugs in cabs. In Vishwa Karma Industrial Area, TP Nagar, Shyam Nagar and KhohNagoriyan area, his families were involved in selling marijuana,” the officer said.

In Vishwakarma area, a family was arrested a few days back. Tara Sansi would illegally store drugs from outside and his wife Rekha Sansi would make small

packets and sell them.

TP Nagar area’s Vikki Sansi, his brother Sonu Sansi and Sushma Sansi would peddle drugs in TP Nagar, Jawahar Nagar and Kanota areas, the police said.

Similarly, in Shyam Nagar area, a woman, Rashida, and her son would stock drugs and sell them in small quantities. All of them were arrested.

Talking about the challenges, a senior ci t y police off i ci al requesting anonymity said that t he peddlers have become advanced with the growth of technology.

“Earlier, the peddlers used to operate through calls, but now they have started dealing via social media applications and websites, so it’s challenging for us to reach the supplier. SIM cards are been purchased on forged identities,” he said.

The c i t y pol i c e of f i c i al s cl aimed t hat t he operation would be further intensified, even as the teams are camping across different states and districts to catch the big fish.