Nepal, Nigeria, Myanmar nationals top list of 660 foreigners arrested in India for drug trafficking

“While the states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir are vulnerable to heroin smuggling from Pakistan, the north-eastern states — Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh — are affected by proximity to Myanmar. Coastal routes — Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu — are now increasingly being exploited for the smuggling of synthetic drugs and precursors,” Garg said.

Addressing the conference, Home Minister Shah said the time has come to bring those who run drug trade in India while sitting abroad within the ambit of law, stressing that the Narendra Modi government is determined to wipe out all kinds of narcotics from the country.

“The CBI has done very good work on this. I appeal to all heads of ANTF that with the help of the CBI, they should make the arrangement for the extradition of fugitives. This will not only help in breaking the narcotics gangs but also the terrorism gangs. Action is also being taken against those involved in the retail trade of drugs,” he said.

Shah said the battle is no longer about catching small-scale drug peddlers but about targeting three types of cartels: those operating at entry points, those distributing from entry points to states and those selling narcotics in smaller areas within states.

“Now, every state has to develop a high-level strategy targeting all three types of cartels. There is a need to adopt technologies such as darknet analysis, cryptocurrency tracking, communication pattern analysis, logistics, financial flow analysis, metadata analysis and machine learning models to curb these cartels,” he said.

According to Shah, in some parts of the world, people have seen the link between a nation’s development and the challenges of drug abuse. “Unfortunately, two of the regions from where drugs are supplied globally are very close to us. So this is the time that we fight against it strongly,” he said.