Anti-drug crackdown leads to arrest of 577 in two weeks by anti-narcotics drive

In a first-of-its-kind anti-narcotics drive initiated by the newly-appointed Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, as many as 577 people were arrested in a week's time for sale and consumption of narcotic substances.

As per the statistics of the Mumbai police, 353 cases were registered between February 18 and February 25 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act across the city.

The crackdown comes in the backdrop of a sting operation by dna on February 11, exposing how drugs were easily available in the bylanes of Mumbai.

The drug haul in the said period include 26 kg of ganja, 450 grams of charas and 1.7 kg of ephedrine. According to ANC data, 247 peddlers were caught in January and 109 in February (till 16th). The corresponding number of cases registered were 54 and 27.

Kishore Jadhav, DCP of anti-narcotics cell said, "The commissioner had called in a meeting a week ago in which one of his focus areas was crackdown on drug sale and consumption." Of the arrested people, nearly 99 per cent were booked for consumption.

West region, from Bandra to Andheri, topped the list with the arrest of 201 following by registration of 156 cases. While the south region, which includs includes Colaba and Masjid Bunder, recorded 61 cases, the central region – Chembur and Kurla – saw 56 cases.

All the accused belong to the middle and lower economic strata of the society and are between the age group of 20 and 40, said a senior police officer.

Sadanand Date, joint commissioner of police (crime) said, "We will be conducting more raids in the future. Our idea is to make the city drug-free. With this, we should be able to pull down bigger networks and mafias that are behind the sale of drugs in the city."