Books and a village in Maharashtra: How drugs are coming into Goa

With the police becoming more vigilant towards drug smuggling, peddlers have now chalked out new ways to transport substance to the state of Goa.

While cocaine is secretly being brought into the popular tourist destination from South American nations via shipping containers, drug traffickers also take the aerial route by hiding LSD papers in books and carrying them onto flights, according to The Indian Express report.

Roads and rail routes are also being used to bring drugs into Goa as hashish is trafficked from Himachal Pradesh and Nepal, the report stated adding that a village named Sasoli in Maharashtra is being used to get consignments.

In a meeting attended by senior police officials from states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Goa among others, Goa Police highlighted the issue of drugs smuggling into the state.

“Ganja is being sourced from Jharkhand and Odisha, but it is routed through channels that exist in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala. LSD crystals are brought in luggage and converted into liquid form by diluting it with spirit or alcohol… In a few cases, the source of opium has been tracked to Madhya Pradesh,” a report presented by the state police stated as per IE.

The report further said that while the Goa drug peddlers receive most of the consignments at Sasoli village, kutcha roads between Maharashtra and Goa are now popular for the drug trade as those are less patrolled.

Drugs generally seized in Goa include ganja, hashish, opium, heroin, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA (ecstasy), DMT, LSD and amphetamine. Also, beaches in North Goa and Canacona are mostly hit by the drug trade, the report added.

The drug traffickers have developed three networks - local Goan networks, tourist networks and international networks - for the trade in Goa. The first network involves procuring drugs from Manali, Odisha, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The second network works through tourists who visit Goa and carry drugs for consumption. The last one includes traffickers from Israel, Nigeria, the UK, and Russia bringing drugs into the state hiding them in their luggage.

The use of 'dark web' and cryptocurrency by the drug peddlers for the trade further makes the task of tracking the money flow harder for the cops, the report stated.