JOIN USIndian heroin finds its way to Delhi via Bareilly
With the arrests of some drug addicts and peddlers recently in Delhi and Punjab, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has come across a new trend of indigenous heroin finding its way to the youths of the capital.
The heroin which comes at one fourth of the price of its Afghan counterpart is enticing a pool of youngsters who would have otherwise found the price of the traditional heroin a deterrent to buy them, said NCB officials.
“Price of one kilogram of Afghan heroin comes at a price of approximately one crore rupees, whereas that much of Indian heroin can be bought at only Rs 20-30 lakh,” said Madhav Singh, Zonal Director, Delhi Zonal Unit.
The heroin which comes mainly from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district is basically derived from the opium poppy plants grown in the North Eastern states of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
“This heroin is grown in the form of opium in Manipur and then processed in some cities of Uttar Pradesh like Bareilly, Banaras, and Lucknow,” said Singh.
India is one of the few countries in the world where opium is grown legally under the supervision of government agencies for medicinal purposes.
“Opium is legally grown in UP, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However, illegally opium is produced in Manipur and some eastern parts of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Myanmar,” Singh said.
In Manipur, opium producers extract morphine from opium and then send it to cities of Uttar Pradesh like Bareilly, Banaras and Lucknow.
In these cities, some opium-growers, who traditionally grow opium poppy plants legally, due to various reasons, have started to process morphine brought from Manipur into heroin.
“Due to bad weather sometimes their crops don’t yield much produce. The poppy farmers of Uttar Pradesh in collusion with some middlemen start processing morphine, which comes from Manipur, into heroin at their homes or labs,” Singh added.
Since Bareilly is only 250 kilometre from Delhi, it is very convenient for the suppliers to send their product to the capital through drug pedlars.
In Delhi, apart from the locals, drug addicts also come from other parts of the country like Punjab to buy the heroin.
Last month two individuals Rimpu, 35, and Balwinder, 35, who had come from Muktsar in Punjab were caught by the NCB sleuths when the duo were stealthily buying Indian heroin from a Nigerian national at the Uttam Nagar bus terminal.
While Rimpu works in a laptop-repairing shop, Balwinder is a labourer. During their interrogations they confessed that they were drug addicts for many years and were not getting high quality drugs at affordable rates in Punjab.They came to Delhi as they knew that they would get good quality drugs at cheaper rates in the capital.
In another case in June this year, Punjab Police had arrested two Nigerian drug peddlers from Jalandhar with 4 kg of Indian heroin. One of the arrested, a woman, is a resident of Delhi and had gone to Punjab with the heroin, said NCB officials.