In the wake of recent revelations by arrested synthetic drug carriers that they mostly used the public transportation network for the delivery of drugs, special squads of the Police, Excise and Government Railway Police have decided to intensify flash checks in buses, tourist vehicles and trains. Highway police officers too will be roped in to step up existing surveillance measures.
Inter-State bus services will be placed under surveillance. Efforts are also under way to strengthen intelligence inputs with the support of the public to carry out effective flash inspections in inter-State vehicles.
According to police sources, the carriers have been found pretending to be inter-State passengers in most of the recent cases. Carriers never engage in direct sales, and are suspected of escaping after delivering the smuggled consignments to assigned individuals by public or tourist transport network, say the police.
The entry of more women as carriers has surprised anti-narcotics squads. Most of them are reportedly drug addicts following their long association with the illicit trade. They are also reportedly part of a nation-wide network of drug pushers who are suspected of exchanging details using social media pages.
“For several months, we have been keeping an eye on inter-State tourist vehicles to track suspected transportation of banned consignments. Such vigil will be adopted in the case of transport vehicles too,” says a police officer associated with the anti-narcotics squad. Surveillance cameras on highways will be closely monitored to intercept suspected vehicles with the support of the highway police, he adds.
Officers with the Excise department say arrangements are under way to track the misuse of inter-State goods vehicles for smuggling of illicit liquor and synthetic drugs. There are proposals to use trained dog squads to carry out road inspections effectively, they add.
As inter-State trains are also being exploited by those engaged in narcotics business, the Government Railway Police squads have been asked to keep an eye on the movement of passengers with suspicious consignments. According to them, flawless checking will be possible only with the introduction of modern baggage scanners. The Kozhikode railway station will have improved facilities on completion of its modernisation work, they add.