Forfeit assets of drug traffickers, target kingpins: Rajnath to officials

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today called for strong steps against narcotics trade in the country, saying assets of drug traffickers should be "forfeited" and stern legal action be taken against drug cartels.

Singh, in his address at the first national conference on 'drug law enforcement' here, urged multiple government agencies working in this domain to increase the use of technology in drugs interdiction.

"To stop the inflow of money generated from illegal trade of drugs into our economy, proper financial investigation needs to be conducted in each significant NDPS (anti-narcotics law) case.

"Movable and immovable assets of drug traffickers should be forfeited. This will break the back bone of drug trafficking," Singh said while addressing officials of various anti-narcotics agencies from the Centre and the states.

In his address at the conference organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), he said a "lot more" work still needs to be done in the field of combating narcotics crime.

"Drug law enforcement in India is a multi-agency task. All enforcement agencies should give high priority to this," Singh said.

Drug trafficking, he said, is an organised crime run by cartels and syndicates and "we need to identify such syndicates and their kingpin and take stern action against them to disrupt their illegal businesses."