Gujarat drug seizure
THE seizure of 61-kg heroin worth Rs 425 crore by the Coast Guard and the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad from an Iranian boat in Kutch district has again turned the spotlight on drug smuggling through the state’s ports. Several such recoveries have been made over the past year and a half, with the Gujarat authorities establishing that the drugs were mostly meant to be supplied in Punjab. In October 2021, a huge consignment of 2,988-kg heroin had been seized at the Mundra Port. In September 2022, a Pakistani boat carrying 40-kg drugs had been intercepted; the Gujarat police had found that drug traffickers lodged in jails of Amritsar and Kapurthala had used mobile phones to order this contraband from Pakistan.
The increasing use of the Gujarat sea route by narcotic smugglers is worrisome for Punjab, which has been ravaged by the drug menace in recent decades. Even as the BSF is thwarting attempts to push drugs into the border state through drones, the Punjab Government needs to work in close coordination with Gujarat’s agencies to deter drug syndicates from using ports for their nefarious purposes. It’s creditable that Punjab is now keen to enforce the long-neglected Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988, which has a provision for preventive detention of persons involved in the drug trade.
Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly articulated the Centre’s resolve to crush the drug scourge across the country. He has also red-flagged the close link between drugs, black money and terror financing. Even as Shah is scheduled to flag off a pan-Punjab ‘Nasha Mukti Yatra’ from Amritsar later this month, the Centre needs to go all out to help the state fight the tough battle against drugs; the Gujarat Government can chip in by cracking down on smugglers with a Punjab connection. Another issue that calls for inter-state cooperation is the smuggling of liquor from Punjab to the presumably dry state of Gujarat. A thorough probe is required to expose the nexus between racketeers and officials to uncover links, if any, between drug smugglers and institutionalised industrial-scale bootleggers.
