Navy, NCB seize a 2,500-kg consignment, worth Rs 1,200 crore, along the Kerala coast

The seizure of a massive drug consignment, nearly 2,500 kilograms of methamphetamine,in Indian waters along the Kerala coast highlights the enormity of the problem. The joint operation by the Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is a testimony to the cooperation between different agencies. The Department of Revenue Intelligence and the police forces of coast states were also involved. The drug bust, estimated to be worth around Rs 12,000 crore, is the largest seizure of methamphetamine, a synthetic narcotic substance, in the country. NCB Deputy Director General (Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singh informed the media that the operation was part of Operation Samudragupt targeting maritime trafficking of drugs originating from Afghanistan. This is also said to be the first time that such a massive meth haul from Afghanistan has been made. Which means a greater headache for the NCB—indeed the entire country. For Afghanistan is already infamous for opium cultivation. When the Taliban were in power in the 1990s, a BBC report said in April, they all but stamped out poppy cultivation. But the drug trade became a major source of income for them throughout their 20-year insurgency. “Now the Taliban say they have ordered an end to the poppy trade and are trying to enforce this policy. But according to the UN, cultivation increased by 32 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.” This is because a country or group can’t switch on and off the drugs trade as per their convenience. It’s an evil that spreads indiscriminately. Afghanistan is said to be the drug addiction capital of the world, with about 3.5 million people out of a total population of 40 million being junkies.

Besides, the relation between drugs and terrorism is well known. Not only are terrorist outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen neck-deep in the narcotic trade, many of their handlers in the Pakistan Army’s ISI too are. Quite apart from an extremely lucrative business, drugs also severely damage the addicted youth’s cognitive and cogitative faculties, often making them lose the moral compass as well. They become putty in the hands of terrorists and drug lords, who can use the new recruits for criminal activities and radicalisation. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan deliberately uses nacro-terrorism to foment trouble in the bordering states in India. And now it is also using the sea to boost the drug trade. For the NCB, this is the third drug bust of maritime trafficking through the southern route in the last 18 months. In total, it has seized about 3,200 kg of methamphetamine, 500 kg of heroin and 529 kg of hashish. The NCB also revealed the existence of a ‘mother ship,’ a large vessel carrying various quantities for distribution along the route. The cooperation between our various agencies seems to be improving; it has to improve further. For safety is predicated on vigilance.