Drug menace grips Meghalaya, record seizure of narcotics in past 6 months

SHILLONG, March 10: The seizure of narcotic substances in past six months in Meghalaya has broken all records of last 50 years.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Director-General of Police, Lajja Ram Bishnoi said 116 NDPS cases were registered in 2022 – the highest in the last 50 years – and 234 people were arrested.
The police seized 60 vehicles used by the drug traffickers while 7.5 kg of heroin and around 4,000 kg of cannabis and psychotropic tablets were seized. Majority of the drugs seizure was made from May to December. One kg of heroin is believed to be sufficient for 2,000 drug users.
In addition, 28,700 bottles of cough syrup and cash amounting to Rs 37 lakh were also seized. The cough syrup bottles were destined for Bangladesh.
This year so far, 35 NDPS cases have been registered and 80 people arrested. The seizures include 3.2 kg of heroin, 60,000 psychotropic tablets, 31 vehicles and 94 mobile phones.
The DGP said the drug traffickers are arrested and sent to jail but the problem gets compounded when they indulge in the activities again after getting bail from court.
He said the police department has submitted some ten proposals to the government and constituted an advisory board. He said if these proposals are accepted, the police will be able to detain a repeat offender and send him to jail even if there is no recovery of anything.
Bishnoi said the police realized that cases are failing in court due to procedural lapses by the investigating officers (IOs) during investigation and hence, a supervising committee has been set up. Headed by the SP, CID, it will call the IOs regularly with case diary and supervise the investigation process.
The DGP said the problem of drugs was confined to urban areas but now, many youths in rural areas have fallen prey to the same. Many girls have also started taking drugs, he added.
Meanwhile, the East Khasi Hills district police’s ANTF arrested one person along with five boxes of heroin weighing 66.46 gm, two mobile phones and a car from near the KHADC office, Shillong.
In another operation, the ANTF arrested four persons from Mawprem area and seized 268.71 gm of heroin, Rs 6,87,150 and 60 syringes. The operations were launched following intelligence inputs about the supply of drugs.