Concerned by the presence of a drug cartel in Goa, police are acting against foreigners overstaying in the state as part of efforts to curb the illegal trade in narcotics.
PANAJI: Concerned by the presence of a drug cartel in Goa, police are acting against foreigners overstaying in the state as part of efforts to curb the illegal trade in narcotics.
"Foreigners don't overstay without reason. Why do you stay back unless there is a lot of benefit? Drug peddling is one of the major reasons for them to stay back in Goa," Deputy Inspector General Ujjwal Mishra said.
He said seven Nigerians and a Kenyan, arrested in recent raids, had links to the drug trade and all of them were found to be overstaying in Goa, which receives thousands of foreign tourists every year.
Three of them had no valid passport. Investigations have revealed that all these foreigners were acting as 'drug carriers' at the behest of suppliers, Mishra said.
"We have not managed to get a big drug haul from the raids as the tourist season is not on," he said.
Police officials, while confirming huge drug trade in the state, said they were trying to 'immobilise the carriers' before the start of the tourist season in a couple of months.
Mishra said recent arrests have helped police unearth national and international links to the drug trade in this tourist paradise.
"Interrogations have revealed that they had procured the drugs from outside Goa," he said.
While Nigerians seem to be the main target of the police investigation, Mishra denied that nationals of any particular country were involved in the trade.
"We can't single out one particular group or country. We caught the Nigerians because there was specifc information about them," he observed are in Goa for over six months.
"Britons are the maximum. We have 1,095 Britons staying here for more than six months," Rina Tarcotto, Deputy Superintendent of Police attached to the Foreigners Registration Branch, said.
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