Jammu: The special wing of J&K Police, Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has launched a major crackdown in Jammu and Kashmir in a coordinated manner to curb narcotics smuggling with the arrest of over 1232 drug peddlers and lodging of 867 FIRs in the first quarter of 2021-2022.
The ANTF and J&K Police’s drive against drug peddling foiled many attempts of the inter-state drug peddlers with timely inputs provided by the intelligence agencies.
The J&K Police officers posted in ANTF have a good intelligence network and vast ground experience to curb the narcotic and drug peddling in J&K leading to the success of the department to foil such attempts even as the cases have recorded an increase in J&K.
As per the data available with Greater Kashmir, the J&K Police arrested 574 drug peddlers in 2021 and 658 drug peddlers in 2022.
In 2022, 84 more FIRs were registered in drug peddling cases than in 2021.
Similarly, 71 FIRs in NDPS cases were registered in the first quarter of 2022 in comparison to 2021.
“We have increased our vigil and are working in coordination with other security forces, district Police teams, and intelligence agencies to put an end to the drug peddling and narcotic smuggling attempts. In many cases, we have found that the funds collected through the narcotics were used to fuel terror in J&K. However, the alertness of the J&K Police has foiled such attempts,” an official wishing not to be named said.
Citing an example, the senior Police officer said that one of their ANTF teams recently seized 26.58 kg of hashish and arrested two interstate narco smugglers. This consignment which was loaded in a truck was coming from Sopore when it was intercepted near Transport Nagar Yard (Narwal-Channi Road in Jammu).
“61.02 kg of heroin was seized in the first three quarters of 2022 and 6.03 kg of heroin was seized in the first quarter of 2021,” the official data revealed indicating a steep rise in heroin smuggling cases during the first quarter of 2022.
The previous year’s figures also show a rise in charas smuggling although these attempts were mostly foiled and consignments seized.
The Police officer said, “At least 393 kg charas was seized in the year 2019, 633.6 kg in the year 2020 and the recovery of charas mounted up to 940.99 kg in the year 2021.”
In the last three years, the recovery and registration of NDPS cases in the Jammu zone were more than in the Kashmir zone.
“In Jammu zone, 187.02 kg charas was seized in the year 2019, 368.92 kg in the year 2020, and 240.09 kg in the year 2021,” the Police officer said quoting the official data.
He said that in Kashmir, they were able to seize 206.4 kg charas in the year 2019, 264.70 kg in the year 2020, and 675.81 kg in the year 2021.
At the same time, 23,180 kg of poppy straw was seized in the year 2019, 16,727 kg in the year 2020, and 17,044 kg in the year 2021 in the Jammu zone.
“In the Kashmir zone, the J&K Police’s special wing seized 1168 kg of poppy straw in the year 2019, 7113 kg in the year 2020, and 2672 kg in the year 2021,” the Police officer said.
Comparatively, the recovery of poppy straw was more in Jammu than in Kashmir.
The J&K Police’s special wing seized 51.95 kg ganja in the year 2019, 21.37 kg in the year 2020, and 164 kg in the year 2021 in the Jammu zone whereas 0.42 kg of ganja was seized in Kashmir in the year 2021.
The ANTF teams have successfully seized narcotics before the consignments could be smuggled to different destinations outside J&K.
“We seized consignments which often came from different parts of Kashmir. It was possible because of the coordination between ANTF and intelligence wings of the J&K Police,” a senior Police officer said asserting that the role played by the Police in districts cannot be ruled out as they laid checkpoints on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and Jammu-Pathankot highway in different areas and seized huge consignments.