Thiruvananthapuram: State police chief Loknath Behera has pointed out serious lapses in police enforcement against drug trafficking, including lack of attention by district police chiefs in investigating in-depth to trace ‘big players’ involved in the trafficking. In a fresh directive to police officials, Mr. Behera instructed that the conspiracy and original source of drug rackets should be probed as part of drug seizures. “Seizures should not be treated as mere seizure cases. We have to identify and detect producers and big players involved,” said the directive.
Citing that various stringent provisions relating to attachment of property were not invoked, the state police chief also directed that all police stations should be sensitised about the importance of enforcement of drug laws. Flaying district police chiefs for not giving “proper attention towards enforcement and in-depth investigation of narcotic cases”, Mr. Behera said that the range Inspector Generals of Police would be held responsible for drug enforcement and investigation.
The IGPs were also directed to form Special Squads in order to strengthen the enforcement against drug trafficking and the district police chiefs were directed to interact with excise officials for increasing drug seizures. The state police chief also directed the ADGP (intelligence) to form a team to collect intelligence information regarding drug trafficking. IGP (Administration) has been directed to regularly monitor the activities of the police in drug seizures.
