Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 9: Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts are academically advanced and have a high number of engineering and medical colleges. Naturally, it has a large number of students from other states and countries.

The police investigation has revealed that the drug mafia mainly targets students of prestigious colleges. Annually, over 150 drug cases are reported from Udupi and Mangaluru cities. The police have found that small sachets containing drugs are being sold to the students. The drugs that are mainly used happen to be ganja, LSD, MDMA and MDM.

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State home minister Basavaraj Bommai held a video conference last week with all the police commissioners and superintendents of police. He instructed them to take strict measures to crush the drugs mafia in the state. The police have now been working urgently to find the kingpins and book them. The police say that they have got clinching clues and hope to arrest the drugs racket on a large scale within a week.

The drugs peddlers win the friendships of students and sell drugs through the students in the college campuses. When five engineering students from the city were arrested and questioned by the police last year, this tactic had been revealed. Students from other states, in particular, live in hostels, paying guest accommodations, rented houses etc and their parents do not have an opportunity to keep an eye on the children. By the time they learn about the wayward behaviour of the students, it is normally too late and the students lose their future.

The police have found that drugs are mainly supplied to coastal districts from Goa and Kerala. Drugs are transported through vehicles and railways. It is then sold through petty merchants. In 70 per cent of drug cases found in the city, Kerala people were found involved.

There are some who have totally adopted drugs trade as their way of living on the coast. Abdul Rahim alias Kandi Rahim from Old Port here faces over ten cases of ganja sale. Even though the Goonda Act was invoked against him, he came out on bail and got involved with the same business. Like him, many others are operating, which has been posing a huge problem for the police.

The police are now taking aggressive measures to take on the drug menace. Cases in rural areas too are considered seriously and a parade of people participating in them are being conducted, and a close watch is kept on such people, said Dakshina Kannada district superintendent of police BM Laxmi Prasad.