With security tightened at the airports and on the inter-state borders, the drug mafia has found an easier route to bring the contraband into the city without being detected — the railways.
On Tuesday evening, a 27-year-old man from Rajasthan was arrested near the Bandra Terminus with 4kg of hashish. According to the police, the accused had come to the city in a mail train and was supposed to meet a city-based drug peddler.
Last week, a youth from Madhya Pradesh was arrested with half a kilogram of brown sugar at Mumbai Central.
Similarly, in the past few months, most of drug suppliers arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police have revealed that they too had entered the city with ease using the rail route.
“It is easier for them to conceala small quantity of the drug in their luggage,” a senior ANC officer said. “Unlike airports, the luggage is not usually checked at railway stations, thus making it easier for them to escape police detection.”
The officer said that in the past few months, more than 15 gangs operating from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had brought drugs into the city in a similar manner.
Interestingly, one man never carries a large quantity of the contraband. “If a bigger quantity of the drug has to be transported, more number of people will travel,” the officer said.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had conducted training sessions for the personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) so that they can identify and detect the drugs.
NC Parhi, senior divisional commandant, Central Railways, said: “We keep a check on all the people and their luggage. However, it is impossible to check each and every bag. Luggage of the people entering the station is checked thoroughly.”
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