Mumbai: The anti-drugs enforcement agencies have stumbled upon an ingenious way of communication used by drug peddlers and abusers. In separate actions which were taken recently, agencies like the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), Pune police and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have deciphered the codes used on social media for procurement of drugs. To create awareness on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the ANC has urged parents and teachers to be vigilant about popular emojis and slangs being used by youths for drug abuse.
Last month, the Pune police had nabbed five youths peddling drugs online via food delivery apps to students and IT professionals. The analysis of their as well as other smugglers' mobile phones revealed codes and emojis used by consumers. To alert parents, the police also tweeted some of these emojis and their meaning in the community of drug peddlers.
The Dark Web
The use of secret language to evade legal clutches has signaled a shift from street peddling to dark web. The policing authorities have discovered how innocuous acronyms and emojis have become codes for trading narcotics. Drug dealers have developed digital ways of accepting orders and payments. Messaging services like Whatsapp, Telegram, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook messenger have now become a den for peddlers. Using such platforms, they directly connect with consumers and also have the edge of cleaning the digital trail.
After the recent arrest of narcotics kingpin Aliasgar Shirazi, the crime branch was puzzled with unusually large regular orders for “white shirt” and “green tea” by Shirazi on WhatsApp and Telegram. It was a shocker for cops when a former associate of Shirazi's syndicate spilled the beans, apprising that white shirt refers to cocaine, black shirt meant hash, rani was brown sugar while green tea was ketamine. These codes were used for exporting narcotics to the UK, US and Australia.
Emojis for various drugs
Similarly, during the Mumbai police's anti-narcotics drive, police officials encountered emoji codes for drugs like marijuana, cocaine, MDMA or ecstasy, magic mushrooms, methamphetamine and heroin in Whatsapp chats and other social media platforms. Meth or meow meow was the most abused drug amongst youths and referred as bounce, bubbles and ice in online chats while over the counter prescription pills were called buttons and bacchu.
Earlier, the NCB had busted several drug peddlers using various online platforms and codes to sell drugs. NCB officials monitoring the dark web were able to decipher the codes like 420 which referred to marijuana, charlie for cocaine and molly for MDMA.
According to ANC Deputy Commissioner of Police Prakash Jadhav, fight against drug menace is on two fronts – supply reduction with enforcement, seizure and arrests of traffickers while curtailing demand in the society by awareness.
Decoding drug menace
White shirt refers to cocaine
Black shirt meant hash
Rani was brown sugar
Green tea was ketamine
Meth or meow meow was termed bounce
420 meant marijuana
Charlie for cocaine
Molly meant MDMA
