Shillong, March 10: The Director General of Police (DGP) in Meghalaya, Dr LR Bishnoi, has raised concerns about drug trafficking in the state, stating that drug peddlers are resorting to providing drugs for free to increase the number of consumers. He also expressed concern that the problem of drug addiction has shifted from urban areas to villages across the state, and that young girls are increasingly getting involved in drug use.

According to Bishnoi, drug traffickers have changed their strategy by using middlemen to supply drugs for free, which allows them to keep their supply chain running while also increasing their customer base. “The drug traffickers used to contact directly with the consumers. But now with the help of the middlemen they have changed their strategy and they started supplying drugs free of cost to the consumers so that they can increase the number of consumers and their supply remain intact,” the top cop told reporters on Friday.

Bishnoi warned that such actions by drug traffickers could lead to social problems, as many drug addicts resort to stealing from their own families and friends.

“When we arrest drug addicts, they always tell us that we are from a very poor family and we get the drugs free of cost from the traffickers. So free of cost means the traffickers will give free of cost only for a few days and once they become drug addicts after that traffickers will not take care of them and what they will do, they will start stealing money from their own homes, from friends – those kinds of problems are there,” he said.

Bishnoi added that drug addiction can lead to other crimes, including theft and violence against family members. He cited the case of a person from West Jaintia Hills who recently stole Rs 8 lakh worth of gold ornaments from his own mother.

He also expressed concerned that the problem of drug menace is no longer confined in urban areas but has shifted to villages across the state. “So many youths from the villages they also started taking drugs. Secondly, few years back the problem was confined to the male population but now lots of young girls have started taking drugs,” he said.

Despite the challenges posed by drug trafficking, Bishnoi reported that Meghalaya police have arrested 234 drug peddlers and drug users, including 20 women, in 2022, and seized drugs worth over Rs 50 crore. The seized drugs include over 7 kg of heroin worth over Rs 45.22 crore and over 27,000 bottles of cough syrup worth over Rs 1.38 crore, among others. Ganja weighing nearly 4 tonnes, opium weighing over 600 gm, and over 12,800 methamphetamine tablets were also seized. The recovery in 2022 has surpassed the recorded seizure of the past 50 years in this hill state, with 116 cases being registered.

He also said that there is an upward trend of arrest, seizure and registration of drugs related cases this year too. “In the first 70 days, 80 people were arrested and heroin seized was over 3 kg, ganja seized was 140 kg, 60,000 tablets, 22,000 bottles of cough syrups and Rs 28 lakh cash,” he said.

The DGP informed that 25 percent of the arrests made were of traffickers from other states which include Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur besides Punjab, Bihar, and Bengal.

However, Bishnoi expressed regret that many of the jailed drug peddlers and users got bail because of delays in getting reports from forensic laboratories. To address this issue, the police department has formed a supervisory committee headed by an SP (CID) to monitor drug-related cases and ensure speedy submission of chargesheets so that cases do not fail.