India saw major spurt in drug seizure in past 5 years: UN narcotics watchdog

There has been a significant rise in drug seizure in India in the past five years, with the darknet and maritime routes emerging as the preferred modes of trafficking, a UN narcotics watchdog has said.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) also said in its 2022 Annual Report that India has used “proactive regulations” to deal with the illicit manufacture of large quantities of synthetic drugs.

In 2017-22, heroin seizures rose from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021 in India, it said.

There has also been an increase of more than 70 per cent in seizures of opium, from 2,551 kg in 2017 to 4,386 kg in 2021, while seizures of cannabis zoomed more than 90 per cent, from 3,52,539 kg in 2017 to 6,75,631 kg in 2021.

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The report’s statistics came from the Narcotics Control Board of India.

Port seizures

It said port officials in India have reported seizures of large quantities of heroin from shipping containers, including almost three tonnes detected in Gujarat in September 2021.

This suggests an expansion of drug trafficking along the southern route and through the Arabian Sea.

India reported that seizures of cocaine amounted to 364 kg in 2021. In the previous three years, such seizures averaged only about 40 kg.

The record level of seizures in 2021 was attributable to a single seizure involving 300 kg of cocaine discovered in a container that had originated in Panama and transited through Antwerp, Belgium, and Colombo.

In March 2022, Sri Lanka Customs in Colombo found 350 kg of cocaine in a container that had arrived from Panama via Belgium and Dubai; the consignment was destined for India.

Tramadol seizure

In 2020, nine countries in Asia reported the seizure of a total of 1.2 tonnes of tramadol, a substance not under international control, of which India accounted for almost the entire amount intercepted.

That was a significant increase over 2019 when India seized 144 kg of tramadol and other countries in South Asia reported combined seizures of 70 kg.

The seizure operations in India led to the dismantling of a major international criminal network trafficking tramadol and other psychoactive substances that exploited the darknet, it said.

It further said that as global demand for synthetic drugs continues to grow, illicit manufacturing and trafficking organisations were expected to scale up their global activities.

Pharma industry

India, home to a large chemical and pharmaceutical industry, has witnessed the rise of commercial chemical factories that have been adapted to illicitly manufacture large quantities of synthetic drugs and their precursors, the report said.

This development has been driven by the availability of highly qualified but underemployed chemists, who are susceptible to recruitment by criminal organisations.

To address that situation, more proactive regulations are being developed and coordination among government agencies is being improved in order to facilitate the early detection and scheduling of new psychoactive substances, it said.

In addition, the regulation of online drug sales is being improved, and both traditional and digital investigative capacities are being enhanced.

The report noted that South Asia remains an important transit area for traffickers smuggling illicitly produced opiates from Afghanistan to Europe and North America.

South Asia

In addition, the five coastal states in South Asia — Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — are exposed to trafficking because of maritime trafficking routes that cross the Indian Ocean.

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India, in particular, has noted an intensification of trafficking in opiates originating in Afghanistan and trafficked eastward, along the southern route.

The illicit cultivation of cannabis for domestic consumption and trafficking continues in South Asia, with Bangladesh, India and Nepal most frequently mentioned as countries of origin, departure and transit for cannabis herb.

(With agency inputs)