Post demonetisation, the Odisha police have struck the biggest-ever haul of seized drugs like ganja in the last decade. Significantly, ganja has been the biggest revenue source for theMaoist activities in the State for long.
Not only ganja, other narcotic substances like heroin too were seizedin a big way by the police and central agencies like Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Odisha during the demonetisation period of November-December last year.
According to figures with State police and NCB Bhubaneswar, the totalganja seized till October 2016 had been around 10, 000kg but the total seizure of ganja during the demonitisation period of two months has been a whopping over 68,000kg. Similarly, heroin seized till October 2016 had been mere 30 gm only but during the demonetisation period of November-December, the total seizures have been a high of around 950gm.
Significantly, when the above numbers tell the real story what looks quite glaring is that the enforcement agencies in Odisha have struck the biggest ever haul of narcotic substances, including manufactured drugs, seizure last year as the quantity seized totalled to a whopping around 78,376kg against around 19, 220kg in 2015, over 25,600kg in 2014, which incidentally was an election year, and a mere around 2,000kg in 2013.
Though the State police and NCB didn’t detect any circulation of other drugs like cocaine, ATS etc in the State, the State police, however, has seized nearly 2,000 cough syrups (codeine based) bottles last year, which incidentally is lesser than that of over 3,000 bottles seized in 2015.
As it is well known, post the strict vigil on Nepal-India border in mid 2000, Odisha has moved fast to emerge as the country’s prime narco transit centre. Now, the National Capital Territory Region (NCR) sources its cannabis, hashish and, to some extent, opium requirement from Odisha. Since then it was known to security agencies that the cannabis transit route from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh passes through Odisha border up to Andhra Pradesh. Because, traffickers from Bihar, to escape the police net, sourced cannabis and hashish (resinous product of cannabis) from Odisha for their NCR markets, disclosed NCB sources.
How drug money funds MaoistsIJ Police sources reveal the disturbing truth that these drug traffickers also act as firearms syndicates in Odisha and the drug cash is used to procure firearms that were supplied to Maoists and, even, organised gangs. The State police data records a significant rise in crimes in Odisha during the last half decade where unlicenced firearms were been used, which points to the growing enormity. How DeMo helped Odisha PoliceIJ Top police sources in State crime branch reveal that since traders from other States were financing the local narcotic substance producers here, and as mostly the trade has been in hard black cash, the trader-drug syndicates were in a hurry to evacuate their inventory and dispose the junk notes to narcotic cultivators in Odisha. And, sniffing such a rise in drug trade-off eventually succeeded so as the number tells.