Trafficking via air is risky, so Kolkata Port turns hotbed for intl drug peddlers

Following the tighter security and frisking arrangements at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, international drug peddlers are now using the docks of Kolkata Port under Kolkata Port Trust and its adjacent areas as a new safe corridor for narcotics trafficking.

Kolkata:The international drug peddlers have changed their narcotics trafficking route in Kolkata. Following the tighter security and frisking arrangements at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, they are now using the docks of Kolkata Port under Kolkata Port Trust and its adjacent areas as a new safe corridor for narcotics trafficking. Starting from importing banned narcotics to supplying them to the chain of local retail peddlers, these days everything is done in the port areas.

Sources from the Kolkata Police said that mainly these banned narcotics are being imported from countries like Malaysia, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. Previously, they were using the air route and the airport of Kolkata for trafficking purpose. But there are two reasons for them to shift to port areas. First, the security and frisking arrangements had been made tighter at the airport. Secondly, the local narcotics carriers in the dock adjoining areas are available more and easily than at airport areas. "Several local people residing in the dock adjacent areas are associated with this narcotics trafficking. Their task is to receive the consignments at the docks and then carry them to the pre-scheduled destinations," a senior police official from the port area said.

The sleuths of the special task force (STF) of Kolkata Police have recently arrested some local kingpins, who acted as cogs in the main wheel of the international narcotics trafficking. When contacted the joint commissioner (STF) of Kolkata Police, V Solomon Neshakumar told ETV Bharat that the investigation to crush the narcotics racket there is still on. "We have got information of a major international drug peddling racket operating from the port area. The raid and search operations are going on secretly. So I do not want to divulge any further details," said Neshakumar.

In fact, after successive arrests of peddlers and seizure of huge quantities of narcotics worth crores of rupees during the last couple of years, the city- base of international drug operators in Kolkata was crippled to a great extent. However, they promptly changed their operational route and made the port area their new safe corridor. City police sources said that the carrier network of these international drug peddlers in the port areas are mainly scattered in the Garden Reach, Metiabruz and Nadiyal areas. Some local residents complained that police are mainly inactive as regards to these carriers.

However, the sleuths of the Staff Special Port Division (SSPD) have been especially active these days to break the chain between the peddlers and carriers, said a police official. "Already, we have been successful to some extent since some of the influential racket operators from the area are in our custody," he added.

He further said that these banned narcotics are mainly imported through the cargo ships that reach the Kolkata Dock Complex for stevedoring purposes. "Often the international drug operators, in tacit understanding with a section of the cabin crew, hide the narcotics consignments in the midst of the bulk or container cargo. That way, the banned Narcotics enter the dock. If the consignments are tracked by the on-duty Central Industrial Security Personnel deputed there, then the consignments do not get the chance to come out of docks. But as we are all aware that the security and frisking arrangements at the ports are not at par with that of the airports. So often the narcotics consignments come out of the dock complex and thereafter the carriers receive them and take it to the pre-scheduled locations," he said.

Besides the waterways, these peddlers and carriers often use the intra-state and inter-state bus-depot at Babughat area, which comes under the jurisdiction of the North Police police station. "They take advantage of the large number of long-distance buses departing or arriving at this bus-depot. Here the carriers often hide the consignments in the lofts of the departing buses while the loading of the passenger luggage is going on. These carriers also clandestinely take out the consignments hidden among the luggage of the arriving buses while the luggage unloading process is on," the police official said. Recently, the city police arrested a number of such carriers from this depot.

Apart from this, there are boats moving through the Ganges flowing adjacent through Babughat or Princep Ghat in the area. These carriers at times use these boats for narcotics trafficking in clandestine understanding with the boatmen or their helpers.