When it comes to the acting against narcotic drugs smugglers and peddlers the city police seems to have taken none tolerance policy which could be seen from its last year's seizure which is over 500 percent more than its seizure of drugs a year ago and twice that of the year before that.
If the statistics are to be believed last year the city police registered total of 7,088 offences and seized narcotics worth ₹ 151.40 crore while total of 7,522 people were arrested. A year ago the police registered total of 3,510 cases seized drugs worth ₹28.83 crore and arrested 3787 people. In 2019 the number of offences registered was at 12,418 in which drugs valued at ₹69.19 crore were recovered with the arrest of 13,242 people in total.
The city police Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) spearheading the drive against drugs have alone seized drugs worth ₹91 crore last year and arrested total of 171 people and most of the biggest seizures are done by ANC only.
In October last year Ghatkopar unit of ANC seized 7.20 kilograms of heroin from a woman worth ₹21.60 crore while Bandra unit had busted a factory of Mephedrone from Kolhapur a month later, a city-based advocate was arrested for running the factory. Another seizure of 5 kg heroin worth ₹15 crore was carried out by the Azad Maidan ANC unit in October.
"We have taken the intolerant approach towards this drugs menace and accordingly increased our vigilance which proved vital in this war against drugs, we will continue our activities in future as well," said Datta Nalawade DCP, ANC.
In the year 2020 the seizure had reduced substantially as a strict lockdown was observed in first few months of pandemic which disrupted the drugs supply chain to the city and demand for drugs was also reduced to never before during the period. For first few months of lockdown the drug seizure had cme down by almost 98%.
As lockdown started to open step by step from June 2020 the supply chain started to open up little until travel and cargo restrictions were lifted completely.
The financial capital of the country is always been one of the prominent destination for drugs however only Mephedrone (MD) could be manufactured locally and others needs to be smuggled. Drugs like Cocain and MDMA also known as ecstasy a party drug, comes from European countries through passengers movement and through couriers. Charas comes comes Jammu Kashmir and from Himachal Pradesh while Chintamani forest in Karnataka is a major source of ganja (cannabis) to the city.
