KOZHIIKODE: The mysterious death of a youngster in a lodge here the other day while injecting drug has once again forced the police to track the drug routes and hit the network. The shift in its modus operandi has also forced the police to modify preventive as well as surveillance strategies. The cops are also tracking trends in drug abuse habits. City police commissioner Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar said they were on with a micro-level intervention to destroy the drug peddlers’ network.
The mobile phone numbers of assistant commissioner (narcotics) and deputy commissioner will be publicised to enable public to pass information. “In this particular case, we have identified the supplier as well as from whom he had sourced it,” Mr Kumar told DC. He had instructed officers to conduct raids on hotels and lodges wherever such suspicious groups gather. A task force would be formed for this purpose. “The Mangalore-Goa connection of city-based drug suppliers and the entry of new psychotropic drugs also are under the scanner,” he said.
It is not a secret among the officials of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) that Malappuram has the highest number of drug joints for pricey narcotics and psychotropic substances whereas Kozhikode is the much-favoured landing point.
According to NCB sources, the city is part of the most preferred all drug routes of the nation, Mumbai-Kasargod-Kozhikode, UP-Bangalore-Kozhikode and Rajasthan-Bangalore-Kasargod-Kozhikode and Mumbai-Goa-Kozhikode-Kochi.
Now the peddlers in the city who specialise in supplying high-end drugs like heroin also source it from Goa. Adding to the headache of police LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), an expensive psychedelic drug used by youngsters of affluent families, is gaining popularity among the city youth. An odourless, colourless and tasteless drug widely used by participants in dance parties, police had spotted it in the city way back in 2011. The spread of the drug among the youth came to light in a letter received by the city police commissioner from a mother of a young addict in 2013. A drug much stronger than heroin and brown sugar, an LSD sheet would have 80 to 100 shots in the form of a circle, triangle or square. Priced at '1000 to '1200 it has pet names like the blotter, acid, and purple heart.
