Shadow lines


Devika Sequeira laments Goa’s loss of innocence, and how it is emerging as a tacky tourist coast where shadowy characters run a parallel economy living on the fringes of the tourism industry.


The Scarlett Keeling case and the strident media coverage has scarred Goa’s image and compelled the state to take a hard look at itself as a tourist destination. Beyond the pretty postcards the picture that emerges is that of a tourist coast turned tacky with overdevelopment, poor sanitation, murkily run businesses and shadowy characters that run a parallel economy living on the fringes of the tourism industry. Lurking in the shadows is the more recent specter of heavy land speculation by sharks both from abroad and North India and illegal land deals by foreigners eager to pick up properties here.

In north Goa where tourism has smothered the coastline environmentally and socially, the tourist profile has sunk so low that ratings have dropped to down-market level, says a leading hotelier. Goa needs to refurbish itself completely, he says. “We need a complete clean-up not only of the police and the coast, but the tourism infrastructure as well. Unless we can get rid of the garbage, clean the beaches, improve the roads and upgrade generally, we will continue to be over-run by poor quality Brits with their offensive manner.”

The bad press over the Keeling case has bruised Goa’s image, says Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Ralph D’Souza. But he doubts it would deter even Britons from coming to Goa. There have been no cancellations so far. He says: “The cover-up by the police created the problem. If the case had been properly handled, there would have been no backlash.” The case should be put on the fast-track and brought to closure as soon as possible, he feels.

Last year 1,60,000 Britons travelled to Goa; 1,20,000 of them came here on the direct charters. Britons account for half of Goa’s foreign tourists and a large number of them now own homes and live here, specially those who are retired or on the dole. Most find it cheaper to live in Goa soaking in the sun and the beach shacks in the day, taking in the pubs at sundown in a leisurely pace of life. Goa’s markets are full of expats doing their shopping on any given day.

After the vocal spat between the Goa government and Keeling’s mother Fiona MacKeown, Goa’s home minister Ravi Naik said the Centre should stop giving visas to foreigners on the dole or with earnings from suspect sources. The police’s foreigner’s branch has 3,347 foreigners registered on long-term visas; half of them are from the UK.

“Goa is being projected as a ‘dangerous’ place after the Keeling case. Such cases are not unique to destinations that attract young tourists. In Pattaya, for instance, there are always reports of such instances,” the hotelier says. Spain which remains Britain’s most popular holiday destination reported 41 rape cases involving British tourists in 2006.

It was worse still in Greece with 48 rapes. There were 38 in Turkey, 10 in Cyprus, six in France and five in Thailand. The UK foreign office had warned its women: “Don’t drink so much that you are not in control of what you are doing – and never leave your drink unattended.”

Which brings us to the question: Did the media go overboard in its scathing coverage of the Scarlett case? Many here argue that Goa got what it deserved after the police’s initial cover-up of the case.

Drug enforcement officers say Placido Carvalho alias Shannaboy, the second man to be arrested in the case and accused with supplying the cocaine sniff and ecstasy that may well have overdosed Keeling, is a drug dealer and a matka bookie who was till now “not touched” by Goa’s corrupt Anti Narcotics Cell. There are wheels within wheels in Goa’s drug circuit and the truth rarely surfaces because of the payoffs.

On Goa’s beaches and at the parties an ecstasy tablet sells for Rs 250 to Rs 300. In bulk, it is available for Rs 150 to Rs 200. A gram of cocaine on the other hand fetches Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. The coke supplied by Nigerians here is so impure that one cut (the amount one sniffs at one go) could lead to severe consequences, considering its mix of chemicals, say officials.

Fiona’s and her lawyer’s undisguised attempts to gain media mileage from her daughter’s unfortunate death is also a disturbing factor in the case for many journalists. MacKeown was clearly in touch with Briton Michael Anthony Mannion alias Masala Mike, a key witness in the case who went missing for almost a month.
Mannion surfaced on February 17 to make his statement before the police in Fiona’s company, but provided no new leads. As it turned out, Mannion, a carpenter, was a friend of Samson D’Souza, the prime accused in the case and had been staying in Goa as D’Souza’s guest till he chose to disappear after Scarlett’s death.
With even the second post-mortem hazy on the cause of Scarlett’s death, the real truth in this case may never come to light.



HOW SOME BIG FISH N DRUGS AND LAND DEALS STAY IN GOA

Like all holiday and party destinations, drugs have always lurked in the shadows of the tourism industry in Goa. In recent years though, international drug mafias have tightened their grip on Goa which is now emerging as a big transit point, say drug enforcement officers here. “This is no longer only a distribution point. The drug scene in Goa has become so serious that the NCB (Narcotics Central Bureau) is planning to open a separate cell in Goa to monitor the drug operators,” a senior Customs official told this newspaper.

Britain’s High Commission in New Delhi has also appointed a retired Scotland Yard detective to investigate cases of organised drug trafficking on charter flights between Goa and the UK. Last year, 1,20,000 Britons took the direct charters to Goa.  

Goa’s home minister Ravi Naik recently warned the Swiss embassy about drug trafficking on the charters from Goa to Europe. Naik said intelligence reports warned that Goa was turning into a big transit point.
There is a huge market for party drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and CK1 (coke and ketamine combo also called Calvin Kleine) in Europe’s hep nightspots. 

Enforcement officials say the Russian drug mafia has entrenched itself in the north Goa region at Morjim, leaving the Calangute coast to the Nigerians while Israeli drug dealers have shifted base to south Goa at Palolem, once a small isolated beach today overrun with tourists trying to escape the overcrowded north Goa.
One of the biggest drug dealers in Goa, an Israeli, who was served a deportation order by the state government has not only managed to stay on for two years, but is now using his wife to traffick cocaine from Brazil to Goa, says the officer.

Israeli national David Graham alias Dudu, 33, was served a deportation order by the Goa government on February 20, 2006. Deputy superintendent of police foreigner’s branch Rina Torcato told this newspaper that Graham’s deportation order specified that the Israeli’s import-export business was only a cover-up for his drug dealing. Dudu Divisions Import Export Pvt Ltd had no RBI clearance either and Graham had acquired a business visa to India in Hong Kong. The courts, however, said Graham should not be forced to leave because he held a valid visa. When the Israeli’s visa did expire in October 2006, he continued to live in Goa and managed to get the police to file a case of overstaying which has kept him here since.

Though Goa deported 37 foreigners in 2006, 38 in 2007 and six already this year, somehow the big fish have managed to slip out of the net. Another such is Russian Leonid Beyzei with suspected links to the narcotics and land mafia. Beyzei was served a deportation order last year for buying up properties in Goa on a tourist visa and “suspicion of narcotics dealing”. The deportation was stayed by the High Court which rapped the police for not serving him with a show cause notice. 

So too in the case of German Ingo Grill, who has run a very successful night market in Arpora North Goa for years while the authorities look the other way, ignoring questions of tax and drug use at the market. Grill held a five-year business visa and was asked to leave in February 2006 for “suspected undesirable activity”. His deportation too was struck down, and the German continues to operate from the very same place the government wanted to shut down. One of his two companies was not registered with the RBI, said Torcato.


DS