Popular social media platform Instagram has emerged as an unlikely destination for drug peddlers, with courier companies being used for deliveries, Maharashtra deputy chief minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis has said.
“There are some hurdles, which we will need to act on. For example, Instagram has become a marketplace. Orders are placed on Instagram, payments are made through Google Pay or any other [app] and delivery made via courier services. These are the challenges. The dark net is used for such transactions. All courier agencies have been told that it is their responsibility to examine their couriers (parcels). We have procured new equipment, which allow surprise checking of courier [consignments] since couriers have become conduits for drug peddling,” said Fadnavis in the state legislative council in Nagpur on December 12.
“We have decided to create an anti-narcotics taskforce. The Anti-Narcotics Cell in Maharashtra will be extended to all police stations and converted into this taskforce,” he added. Factories that had shut down were used to manufacture chemical drugs and a racket that included chemists was involved in this.
Around 2,369 suspicious paan shops near schools and colleges in Mumbai had been demolished based on intelligence inputs, 38,873 e-cigarettes had been seized and crackdowns had been organised on illegal hookah parlours, Fadnavis informed.
Fadnavis told the state legislative council that in Mumbai, they had taken some intelligence-based actions, such as in Dharavi, where they had found a nexus. “Earlier, we would act only against consumers and the middlemen or peddlers. Now, as a rule, we do not stop at the peddler. We get details of where he got it (the drugs) fromâæ” he added.
The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), which was earlier restricted to major locations, has now been launched in all 45 police units with dedicated manpower. A committee had been formed under district collectors to coordinate anti-narcotics operations, and these panels held at least one meeting every month. Intelligence was being shared with central agencies and other states and vice-versa and this reflected in the rise in crackdowns.
Fadnavis said that after a discussion with Union home minister Amit Shah, they had sent a proposal to reduce the permissible commercial quantity limit for narcotics.
“Instagram and several apps on social media are used for peddling drugs,” said a police officer with experience in anti-narcotics operations, adding that the business was moving away from risky street selling to online mediums, where physical interfaces were kept to a minimum. “Drug dealers form groups on social media for selling their contraband. They use specific code words to prevent suspicion. They accept payments online and dispatch these orders via courier companies. In May 2023, the Pune police had bust a narcotics peddling racket, which used a popular grocery and essentials delivery app for these deliveries,” he explained.
The Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Pune police had received a tip-off about a food and grocery delivery app being used to peddle drugs and seized 2,360 Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) stamps worth over Rs 1.14 crore. The accused were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
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