Kochi : Heightened security at major transit hubs due to anti-narcotic operations has forced drug cartels in Ernakulam to switch to a contactless dropping technique, avoiding direct handovers. Using this method, high-volume consignments are thrown from moving trains onto isolated tracks for large-scale suppliers, while local peddlers leave drug packets in deserted locations, even wrapping them in plastic and submerging them in waterbodies. Authorities have intensified intelligence collection to pierce this modus operandi, leading to the arrest of key operatives.
On Aug 11, Angamaly Police, along with the rural district police, arrested Sona Molla, 47, of Murshidabad, West Bengal, near Karukutty. Officers seized 8kg of cannabis, sourced from Odisha, that was allegedly sold locally at Rs 30,000 per kg. In the latest such case, the Ernakulam excise special squad, acting on intelligence about a drop planned for Aug 14 in Chalikkavattom, arrested a man when he attempted to leave a cannabis parcel in a vacant plot facing a residential wall.
The racket, which used to smuggle the contraband from Odisha and West Bengal, would toss it out from the train so that Molla could collect it and sell it to the next level of peddlers. “Ever since Operation Thunder of the excise department was launched alongside Operation Toofan of the state police, peddlers have been turning to innovative methods to avoid detection.
In one case, locals spotted this and informed us, leading to a seizure,” said Ernakulam deputy excise commissioner P K Satheesh, adding that they have intensified inspections and intelligence gathering. Couriers scout isolated stretches of track in advance, then collect packets thrown from passing trains, avoiding the station checkpoints where police surveillance has intensified. Molla had rented a room beside the railway track specifically to receive consignments thrown from trains. A few months ago, an Odisha native woman was arrested with ganja thrown from a train near Nedumbassery. They prefer regions near stations which are less crowded and unlikely to attract attention.