CHENNAI: The long-pending arrest of 58-year-old Sri Lankan drug peddler Joseph Kenneth Sripalan Peres at the airport here on Sunday came as a symbolic shot in the arm for the Narcotics Control Bureau unit in Chennai, as worldwide June 26 is being observed as International Day against Drug Abuse.Interpol had issued a look-out circular for Peres, who was wanted by his country’s police after a banned substance was found in a consignment imported by him from India. For the last six months, he had been hiding in Aminjikarai here. Peres was detained by immigration authorities while trying to board an early morning flight to Colombo. He will be handed over to CBI, which is Interpol’s nodal agency in India.“While local police go after street peddlers, our aim is to catch the ‘big fish’ in the trade,” NCB Zonal Director S Davidson Devasirvatham said at an interaction with the media here.The record for this year has been encouraging. The unit has arrested 12 drug traffickers and seized 100 kg of Ephedrine, 24 kg of ganja and 220 gm of heroin since January. The prize catch was Ibrahim Khan, a native of Tirunelveli, who had been absconding for the last 20 years. “We have three cases against him,” Davidson said. “He escaped to Dubai and set up jewellery shops there.”Acting on a tip-off, NCB sleuths nabbed him when he was on a visit to Mumbai. “Immediately, we could sense a lull in the trade,” he claimed.However, since its inception in 1986, it has been a continuous war for the NCB against the drug lords, who are not put off even by a stringent law such as the Narcotic Drugs and Psycotropic Substances Act, 1985. “The trade is so lucrative,” Davidson said. “A gram of cocaine costs Rs 3,000 and can go up to Rs 5,000.”Of concern is the fact that India has emerged as a lucrative market for the drug cartels. According to the UNODC World Drug Report 2011, India, along with China, Pakistan and Iran, had a vast majority of the population consuming heroin. And the drug culture is showing a change in pattern as according to Davidson no more do drug addicts only do marijuana, opting for the easily available cocaine as well. The target for the drug peddlers is the youth. Hence, the NCB launched a micro-level campaign “Think health, not drugs”, to lure them away from drugs. The latest initiative has seen the zonal director writing to colleges, urging them to set up anti-narcotic clubs. While many colleges evinced interest, Madras Medical College set up the first anti-narcotic club on Saturday, he added.
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