The Anti-Narcotics cell of Navi Mumbai police arrested a total of 32 people for peddling drugs in the city since January 2020. The contraband recovered were heroin, cocaine, brown sugar, crystal meth, ganja among others.
The police sources said that drugs in huge quantity are coming to Navi Mumbai from states such as Goa, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and even a few neighbouring countries.
From January 2020 to December 2020, the Narcotic cell had seized contraband worth Rs 77.35 lakhs. They also seized Gutkha worth Rs 59.3 lakh. Navi Mumbai police commissioner has also launched a campaign "Drug-Free Navi Mumbai" in October 2020 and since then, the police had seized contraband more frequently.
As Navi Mumbai has a number of colleges, drug peddlers' target customers are youths and they are often found near colleges.
A senior official from the Narcotic cell informed that the gangs busted by them were operating from Navi Mumbai and Mumbai region as well. “They normally transport the drugs from other places and then assign different people to sell those in different areas. The youths of the age group of 20 to 30 are their main targets. A majority of the victims are college students,” said another official from the cell.
“The gangs mainly use code language for different drugs while communicating among themselves. Karina, Katrina, Mummy-Daddy, Halwa are some of the codes which are frequently used by them. They use bhai (brother) in code to refer to their fellow peddlers,” he further said.
The zonal DCPs have also formed their own teams and are now conducting raids at all suspicious places in the city.
