Goa has become a principal hub of the international drug trade, apart from being a known centre of consumption. The happy-drug addict-syndrome that has made it a haven for tourists is a minute part of the story.
Those in this lucrative trade estimate that drugs flowing out of AfPak are worth over Rs 5,000 crore. Most of it now lands on the comparatively unprotected Goa coastline.
Mumbai and its hinterland are no longer a favourite landing area since the checks by the Coastguard, Navy, customs patrols and internal security have become more stringent post-26/11.
As a result, Goa has turned into the favoured transhipment point for drug markets in South-east Asia, Africa and Europe. The police say that a large number of foreigners- mostly Russians arriving on chartered flights – bring in the drugs to Goa. However, 70 per cent of the drugs still arrive by sea.
Foreigners who stay back manufacture synthetic drugs locally. The heady party drug, the CK1 pill, has become a craze in Goa. It is a combination of cocaine and Ketamine.
Sold on North Goa beaches under the pseudonyms ‘Blizzard’ and ‘Calvin Klein’, CK1 is readily available in Candolim, Baga, Calangute, Anjuna, Vagator and Arambol.
These synthetic drugs are also exported back to India at higher rates; the traffic controlled by drug dons like Atala who enjoy political patronage.
The Opposition accuses the state police of being hand in glove with drug dealers. Compared to the size of the drug trade, drug hauls by law enforcement agencies are infinistimal in volume.
In 2008, Goa’s Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) seized drugs worth Rs 77.43 lakh. Last year marked the biggest haul ever – 64.28 kg of drugs worth Rs 1.17 crore was seized and 22 foreigners arrested.
Sinful pleasures are available at Goa’s rave and dusk-to-dawn beach parties, most of which take place at the 320 beach shacks along a three-km sandy stretch in north Goa. This year 46 kg of hallucinogens, including charas, ganja, cocaine and Ecstasy tablets, worth Rs 76 lakh was apprehended.
“Goa isn’t exactly a haven for drug trafficking because it is nowhere on the scale of Punjab or even Delhi’s Paharganj,” says Veenu Bansal, superintendent of police, ANC, Goa. Political sources in Panjim say that the insignificant size of drug busts is because gangsters like Atala have powerful political links.
The residents of Goa whisper that the real scandal is the political mafia they vote for. Edwin Nunes, a local political heavyweight is one example of the politics-drugs network. He owns Curlies, a flourishing restaurant on south Anjuna beach.
Read the rest of this India Today article:
Goa: Sex & mafia on cocaine coast
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