WebinarsNew
Deep DiveNew
Explore Business Standard
Banned Drugs
The US military said it carried out another strike on Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people. US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organisation. It provided no evidence. While the military's social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in colour instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it is hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water. The attack puts the death toll at 202 people from
Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai township has seen a rise in drug related crimes with 654 such cases being registered this year compared to 475 in 2023, a senior police official said on Thursday. The total value of contraband seized in these cases was Rs 33.27 crore against Rs 22.97 crore last year, according the official said citing the Navi Mumbai police's annual report. As many as 939 persons were arrested in 2024 for offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, compared to 811 last year, he said. Among those arrested, 58 were foreign nationals, predominantly Africans, marking a rise from 37 in 2023, the official said. The contraband seized from foreign nationals this year was valued at Rs 25.70 crore, an increase from Rs 11.61 crore in 2023. Among the seized drugs, cocaine accounted for the highest value at Rs 16.70 crore, a staggering increase from Rs 1.25 crore in 2023, the official said. The police seized mephedrone (MD) valued at Rs 12.67 crore, up f
The BJP alleged on Thursday that the kingpin arrested in the case of seizure of Rs 5,600 crore here is the chairman of the RTI cell of the Delhi Youth Congress. BJP spokesperson and MP Sudhanshu Trivedi slammed the Congress for its alleged links to drug dealers involved in destroying the country and sought explanation from the main opposition party. He questioned if the drug money was being used by the Congress in its campaign and whether the party's relationship with the alleged kingpin Tushar Goyal extended to business as well. Was there an arrangement between drug dealers and the Congress that they will be given a free run in Haryana, if the party comes to power, he asked. Trivedi claimed that Goyal not only had pictures with senior Congress leaders like K C Venugopal and Deepender Singh Hooda but also had the mobile number of Hooda. The Hooda family should explain, he said. He read from Goyal's appointment letter as the head of the Delhi Youth Congress's RTI cell, claiming th
The Pune police have detained two persons from Mumbai in connection with the alleged use of drugs at a bar here, a top official said on Tuesday. The detained duo was seen with a drugs-like substance in a video that went viral earlier, he said. Pubs in the state's second largest city came into focus after the video, allegedly from Liquid Leisure Lounge or L3 on the Fergusson College Road in Pune city, showed some youths with some drugs- like substance. According to the police, the bar was operating till 5 am on Sunday and liquor was being sold beyond permissible time limit. Bars and pubs in Pune are allowed to remain open till 1.30 am. "We have detained from Mumbai a total of two persons who were seen in the viral video with the drugs-like substance," said Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar. Earlier, the police have arrested eight persons in this connection, including an event organiser, and suspended four police personnel after the L3 bar was found operating beyond the ...
India and the US share a robust working relationship on addressing the major challenge posed by fentanyl drugs, a top health official in the Biden administration has said. Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid primarily used as an analgesic. Since 2018, fentanyl and its analogues have been responsible for most drug overdose deaths in the US, causing over 71,238 deaths in 2021. The Biden administration launched a massive campaign on Thursday to educate young people about the dangers of fentanyl and the life-saving effects of Naloxone, a medicine that reverses opioid-related overdoses. India has been very enthusiastic working with the United States to address this (fentanyl problem) because it understands the significance at a global level of leadership," Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position which is popularly known as Drug Czar, told PTI. He said India is acting like a global leader when it comes to addressing the threat of synthetic
High-value drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin have witnessed record seizures by revenue intelligence officers in the last fiscal, according to a report by the Directorate Revenue Intelligence. Signalling a disturbing trend, the figures revealed that the seizure of highly addictive party drug cocaine has shot up 36-fold to 310 kg in 2021-22 from 8.7 kg in 2020-21 and just 1.1 kg in 2019-20. Another high-value party drug methamphetamine saw a 14-fold increase in seizures by DRI officers at 884.69 kg in 2021-22, up from 64.39 kg in 2020-21. Besides, 3,410.71 kg of heroin, a highly addictive opioid drug, was seized in 2021-22, up 17-fold from the previous fiscal. Of this, 2,988 kg was seized at Mundra port in 2021-22. In 2020-21 and 2019-20, 202 kg and 143 kg of heroin were seized by the DRI officers across the country. According to the DRI report, two key trends have been observed in drug smuggling in recent times. These are the trafficking of heroin via trade routes, ...