PANAJI: Goa police registered a 400% increase in drug cases in 2017 as compared to 2016. Most cases were booked in the last five months, after chief minister Manohar Parrikar ordered a crackdown on the drug trade, which saw police book 161 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) and arrest 172 drugs peddlers and dealers.
Anti narcotics cell (ANC) superintendent of police Umesh Gaonkar told TOI that the total drugs confiscated during the raids are worth Rs 2.84 crore. “The rise in drugs cases is because after the instruction of the chief minister, police stations across the state have started cracking down on drug cases,” he said.
Of 172 arrests, 60 are Goans, 79 are non-goans and 26 are foreigners. As per the ANC statistics of the last five years, among the foreign nationals arrested in the narcotics trade, 80% have been Nigerians. Goa police have seized ganja, methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), cocaine, charas, Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) liquid, LSD paper, herion, amphetamine, ketamine, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
