Narco cops return to crime branch

The anti-narcotics cell was recently detached from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the state police, headed by additional director-general KP Raghuvanshi, and returned to the crime branch of the city police, headed by joint commissioner Rakesh Maria.
The move flies in the face of growing evidence of drug money being used by terrorist groups across the world.

“According to a report, Afghanistan produces 90% of the world’s poppy, which is used to make high-quality drugs like heroin and cocaine,” a senior anti-narcotics officer said.
“Afghanistan and Pakistan are the places where the most terrorist organisations operate from. These organisations get their maximum funding from the drug trade.”

Inputs from units like the anti-narcotics cell would have helped the ATS in investigating terrorist crimes. In fact, the cell, which had been a part of the Mumbai police for 15 years, was moved to the ATS in 2005 for this very reason.

But four years later, the administration believes the move has yielded no result while merely increasing the workload of the ATS. So, Mumbai police commissioner D Sivanandhan issued an order bringing the cell back under the umbrella of the Mumbai police.

The senior anti-narcotics officer agreed that certain issues had prompted the move. “The cell has made several major seizures and arrests after its merger with the ATS,” the officer said. “But in none of these cases was it established that the drug money was used for funding terror activities.”

Another problem was the classical police problem of area of authority. “The ATS has its units across Maharashtra unlike the anti-narcotics cell, which has units only in Mumbai. Also, there was a problem of dual control, because the ATS reports to the DGP, while the cell reports to the commissioner,” the officer said.

Raghuvanshi said the move would not prevent the ATS from investigating narcotics-related terror cases.