Times of India
26 June 2010

One of the most pressing grievances faced by lawmakers and implementers (the police squad) today, is the enforcement of drug trafficking measures for offenders, as it is getting increasingly difficult to curb peddlers and their techniques of concealment, finds Purvi Thacker
The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police seized drug consignments worth Rs 6.5 crore for the period of July 2009 to June 2010. To the citizens, this is an admirable feat, but for the law-makers and legislators, this is not enough. The frustrations expressed by the police are a direct correlation between the economics of drug trading and the implementation of the law. When it comes to classifying offences as bailable and non-bailable with reference to commercial consignments and trafficking of small quantities, policy makers still have a long way to go.

Though the substance abuse penal codes are uniform nationwide, the Mumbai ANC is facing challenges in imposing these measures on repeat offenders what with their refined modus operandi. Sunil Paraskar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC), elaborates, “The most commonly used drugs in Mumbai are hashish (charas/cannabis), ganja, brown sugar and cocaine. Offenders caught in possession of any of these substances are punishable but in varying degrees of breaching.

Twenty-five kg of ganja, 100 g of cocaine, 250 g of brown sugar and 1 kg of charas fall within the jurisdiction of commercial shipments and hence are non- bailable offences.” Due to this, drug falconers and hawkers have resorted to smuggling and trafficking smaller quantities, which puts them in the bracket of bailable offenses incase captured.

Paraskar stresses, “It is vital for the government to levy stringent measures and readdress their apprehending policy when it comes to curbing this; otherwise it becomes very easy for addicts and drug traffickers to obtain immunity from prosecution. We should adopt a more acrimonious attitude towards repeat offenders because every time they are bailed out, they continue to deal in small allotments.

At some stage, it should become imperative to make this sort of bootlegging a non-bailable infraction.” The method of undertaking and smuggling techniques by drug lords, cartels and traffickers is also a major contributing factor that hampers the execution of drug policies.
Practices of transporting drug cargos have severely transformed from simple transporting by trucks (making cavities within), lorry trailers, heavy-goods tempos and freight vehicles. The ANC has managed to incarcerate 17 such truck drivers, but they believe that such tactics have become redundant and are being replaced with more sophisticated and innovative means of smuggling.

Paraskar explains, “Concealing drugs has become a skill in itself, and nowadays, traffickers are looking fastidiously at ways and means of carrying out their operations. Since no one wants to risk curfew checks and bear transportation costs, they now divide and batch their consignments and conscientiously package them.”

Paraskar adds, “Using fruit, bulky carpets and artifacts as a cover for drugs is archaic. Nowadays, small amounts are put into everything and anything from flat bottoms of suitcases to even hiding cannabis resin in marble columns.” Wheelchair tires, capsules, false compartments of wooden frames, bales of frozen meat, cricket balls and even sowing drugs into the clothing of human carriers are popular customs of camouflage.

Drug trafficking and narcotics smuggling is crime that is serious and not only undermines citizens, but the country as a whole. If we want to see a change, it is essential that an amendment be made in the law, not only for drug carriers and possessors but for people consuming and contra banding them.