Mumbai: Drug peddlers and buyers change tactics

With a recent string of raids resulting in the seizure of Meth in the Malwani area, drug peddlers and buyers and treading with caution to avoid getting caught.

With a recent string of raids resulting in the seizure of Meth in the Malwani area, drug peddlers and buyers and treading with caution to avoid getting caught.

Peddlers have now resorted to carrying small quantities of the drug (one or two grams). An officer of the anti-narcotics cell said this tactic was employed as though carrying small amounts of a drug is a crime under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, peddlers feel it would be easy to secure bail.

Officers said that the drug is carried is tiny packets, which peddlers throw away when trapped by the police. “If the discarded packet is not seized by the police team, the peddler recovers it later. Even if the packet is seized or goes missing, the financial loss to the peddler is not much,” the

officer said.

The medium of communication has also changed, said the police, with buyers and peddlers using social media or messaging applications such as WhatsApp to escape the police’s attention.

Officers said a peddler also tried to pass off Meth as Mephedrone, another recreational drug. Mephedrone isn’t covered by the NDPS Act, but the state government recently asked the Centre to look into the matter.

“After the seizure of mephedrone in one case, the Malwani police, on the instructions of Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, have started arresting peddlers for possession of mephedrone under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code,” said Prakash Patil, senior inspector at Malwani police station.

“When we arrested a peddler on November 23, he told us he was selling Mephedrone. But tests in laboratory confirmed that it was Meth. Now we are investigating from where the peddlers purchase the drug,” said Patil.