Is Delhi Becoming a Drug Hub? Arrests, Seizures on Rise, Shows Data from Delhi Police, Customs & NCB

Arrests of people under the Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act increased from 912 persons in 2020 to 1499 in 2022, Delhi Police data shows. The data further suggests that number of cases registered between the three-year period (2020 – 2021 – 2022) also went up from 748 cases in 2020 to 1179 in 2022.

In terms of drugs, the data shows a steep rise in recovery of opium by Delhi Police. From 29.164 kg opium recovered in 2020, the recovery went up to 69.65 kg in 2022. The same rose to 126.6 kg till April 15 this year. Cocaine recovery also has risen from 1.03 kg in 2020, 0.413 kg in 2021 to 2.98 kg in 2022, data shows.

Even as the arrests remain to be on the rise, the police data shows a decline in the recovery of Marijuana and smack.

Further, drug seizure data of the Narcotics Control Bureau (Delhi Zone) accessed by CNN News18 also shows an exponential rise in seizures of heroin – 38.9 kg in 2020, 29.96 kg in 2021 to 117 kg in 2022.

It also shows that cases of LSD, cocaine and methamphetamine seizures also witnessed a rise between the three-year period, while ganja, charas and pharmaceutical drug seizures remained low in 2022 as compared to seizures in 2020.

At the same time, figures from Air Customs, Delhi International airport also show that cases of cocaine and heroin seizures were highest in the last three years. While the financial year 2022-2023 recorded 30 cases of cocaine smuggling and 20 of heroin, the same numbers were limited to just one case of cocaine and five cases of heroin in the financial year 2020-2021.

While no case of methaqualone smuggling was caught at the IGI Airport in FY 2020-2021, the next two years witnessed one such case each.

Special commissioner of police (Crime branch) Ravinder Yadav said they have identified 64 hotspots of drugs in Delhi. “These spots include Aerocity, DU Campus, Jama Masjid area, Chhattarpur and Nizamuddin area. These spots have been identified based on their profiling and easy availability of narcotics. We have intensified our crackdown and hence the rise in seizures,” said Yadav, who also heads the Anti-Narcotics Task Force, Delhi.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) in December 2021 had instructed the states to form dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Forces (ANTF) in a bid to crack down on sale of psychotropic substances and expedite cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

In April; this year union home minister Amit Shah inaugurated the first national conference of ANTF state and UT heads in Delhi.

Commenting on the customs data from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport, Praveen Kumar Bali, Joint Commissioner (customs) said as far as seizures from last year are concerned, there has been a rise of at least 30%.

“If we talk about last 2-3 years, there has been a quantum rise. Also, with the kind of drugs were are catching at Delhi airport, there can be seen a clear shift from the country becoming a consumption centre from being a transit hub,” Bali said.

CNN News18 reached out to Narcotics Control Bureau to get a clarity if their data that shows a significant rise in seizures of narcotics from Delhi indicates that there has been a rise in supply of drugs in the National Capital, but the agency remained unresponsive.

Dr Atul Ambekar, professor, NDDTC (National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre) said, Delhi figures in top five states in terms of proportion of people consuming various substance as well as people affected by drug use disorder.

Quoting a 2019 report by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on drugs usage in India, Ambekar said, “If we talk only about Delhi, at least three lakh people are dependent on charas or marijuana, 3.4 lakh dependent on opioids and 70,000 to 80,000 are dependent on injecting drugs largely heroin. The revised survey due and the numbers have surely increased. This is a worrying trend,” he said.