NCB: Drug seizures in India during 2020 highest in five years
New Delhi: The seizure of various drugs, including opium and heroin, in India in 2020, the first year of Covid, was the highest since 2016, a report by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has said. Data compiled by the federal anti-narcotics agency states that the seizure of opium went up from 4,488 kg in 2019 to 5,212 kg in 2020.
Similarly, the seizure of heroin (extracted from opium) shot up from 3,231 kg in 2019 to 3,838 kg in 2020, ganja (cannabis) from 3,42,045 kg to 5,81,644 kg, ephedrine (a stimulant drug) from 686 kg to 841 kg, and hashish (drug extracted from cannabis) from 3,572 kg to 6,643 kg, the recently published NCB report for the year 2020 said.
The figures for 2020 were the highest for a five-year period beginning 2016, the report showed.
"While there has been a variation of trend in the number of reported opium seizures in comparison to previous years up to 2019, the quantity of opium seized has increased from 4,488 kg to 5,212 kg in 2020," the report said. However, the seizure of cocaine, a party drug, fell from 66 kg in 2019 to 19 kg the next year, primarily due to closure of international flights in India because of the pandemic.
The air route from Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia and Afghanistan is the major mode for trafficking of the recreational drug into India.
The coronavirus pandemic first erupted from the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 and India went into complete lockdown after March 24, 2020 to curb the spread of the infection. The agency, while analysing the narcotics trends for 2020, stated that "major trafficking" of heroin in India took place through the India-Pakistan border along Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
An increase in maritime trafficking of southwest Asian heroin was being witnessed in 2020, the report said. The agency, in the report, also expressed concerns over the "increasing abuse" of prescription drugs as India has one of the biggest pharmaceutical industrial bases and their products were getting "diverted".
