Pandemic effect: Goa sees 33% fewer narcotics cases in 2020, lowest since 2016
The state recorded over 200 cases registered per year across 2018 and 2019 and saw the figure fall to 148 across 2020.
Goa has seen a more than 30 per cent reduction in drug-related cases throughout 2020 as compared to previous years with the total number of registered narcotics-related cases falling to 148, the lowest since 2016, statistics provided by the Goa Home Department have revealed.
The state recorded over 200 cases registered per year across 2018 and 2019 and saw the figure fall to 148 across 2020 - a fall of 33 per cent. The reduction is largely being blamed on the pandemic-induced lockdown and shuttering of the tourism industry including the party hotspots for most of the last year.
Despite the ban on foreign tourist arrivals on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, the percentage of foreigners who have been arrested or booked in narcotics-related cases has continued to remain around 20 per cent of the total number of people arrested.
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Thirty-six of the 172 people arrested in 2020 were foreigners held in possession of banned substances.
Goa, which was witnessing between 50 and 60 narcotics-related cases, witnessed a sudden jump in 2017 when the number of cases touched 168 and increased further to 222 in 2018 and stayed at 219 in 2019.
The police, however, claim that despite the fall in the number of drug cases, the value of the narcotics seized across 2020 was higher than the previous years.
According to Goa Police records, the police had seized narcotics drugs worth ₹6.7 crore in 2020 as compared to 2019 when the total seizures amounted to ₹5.5 crore.
According to police records, two significant raids - one on a cannabis plantation at Keri in Pernem in North Goa in mid-October 2020 in which drugs worth around ₹1.10 crore were seized, and another one in Morjim at a beach village in North Goa in March before the lockdown in which drugs worth ₹1.65 crore were seized - have tilted the scales helping the police seize drugs of higher value as compared to the previous years.
The police also busted an ‘underground’ rave party that was held immediately after the lockdown began to be lifted when such parties were still not allowed. Drugs worth ₹9-lakh, including cocaine, MDMA besides marijuana, were seized.