Delhi Police tighten drug crackdown, shows data

Officers said that while the 2024 numbers were a record, enforcement action has been more stringent this year

NEW DELHI

A seizure made by the police in 2022. (Representative photo)

The Delhi Police has registered 1,096 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and arrested 1,353 persons until May, according to data accessed by HT, with enforcement well on its course to ensure record seizures by the year-end.

According to the data, in theentirety of 2024, 1,789 cases were registered and 2,290 persons were arrested, while the respective numbers were 1,325 and 1,736 for 2023, 1,179 and 1,499 for 2022, and 566 and 857 for 2021.

Officers said that while the 2024 numbers were a record, enforcement action has been more stringent this year, given the growing drug smuggling networks. “With synthetic and prescription drugs being increasingly used, enforcement agencies are recalibrating their strategies to target manufacturing and supply chains more effectively, so that the narcotics trafficking networks could be completely dismantled in the national capital. The Delhi Police continues to work in coordination with other central agencies to address the growing complexity of the drug trade in the capital,” special commissioner of police (crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said.

Police said that marijuana continues to be the most commonly seized narcotic in terms of volume, with over 2,695 kilograms already seized this year. In 2024, 4,921.8kg of the drug was seized. They also highlighted increased opium smuggling, citing seizures to the volume of 212kg in the first five months of the year—over double the quantity of 104.88kg seized in the whole of 2024.

Police also raised the red flag over cocaine recoveries, citing seizures of 1,296.6kg in 2024, which was sharply up from 15.31kg seized in 2023. This year, 0.74kg has been seized until May.

According to the data, police also seized 300,000 tablets and 34,616 capsules of pharmaceutical drugs illegally manufactured, counterfeited or intended for misuse,and 173 bottles of prescription cough syrups. In 2024, 828,000 tablets and 3,561 injections were seized.

Since December 2022, police said they have incinerated substances weighing over 42,000kg and worth over ₹10,000 crore seized under the NDPS Act.

“Drug destruction events reflect Delhi Police’s zero-tolerance stance against narcotics. All events were conducted with strict environmental compliance at designated incineration facilities,” Srivastava said.