The recovery of smuggled liquor dropped by 60% compared to 2019.
While according to Gurgaon police, the recovery of Drugs particularly Marijuana increased by 100%.
Officials have connected this to a rise in demand of such drugs at a time when alcohol stores were shut because of pandemic.
Between January and June in 2019, Gurgaon police had seized around 203 kg of drugs including 188 kg Marijuana.
And now this year police had recovered 405 kg of drugs including 334 kg of Marijuana.
Police official said that most of the trading for the expensive more refined drugs happens at nightclubs which were shut because of lockdown.
In past two months a huge amount of drugs, including a entire truck loaded with marijuana was recovered in the neighbouring of Mewat .
Notably, most of those engaged in sale of marijuana are slum dwellers, street vendors.
” They do not sell drugs to strangers and one needs to be referred by regular client”, said officer.
“Marijuana is smuggled into Delhi-NCR from Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and eastern UP,” said a senior police officer, adding that the drug is then supplied to retailers in small parcels weighing 1 kg or 2 kg each, and from them, it reached the individual consumer in even smaller packets of 5 gm and 10 gm.
According to times of India, ACP (crime) Preet Pal Sangwan said crime units continuously work to track and arrest drug peddlers. In the last 24 hours, crime units have arrested three different persons in three different cases of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act— one from Hans Enclave with 200 grams of marijuana, one from Arjun Nagar with 65 grams of charas and another from Sector 84 with 1.1 kg of marijuana.
“We arrest drug peddlers almost on a daily basis,” Sangwan said, adding that mostly these people are the last in the supply chain. He added they try to disrupt the entire chain.
But cops admit that disrupting supply completely is very challenging, mainly because of high demand and guaranteed, handsome reward at every point of the chain. “People are ready to take risks to make easy money through drug trade, and there are numerous people who are ready to pay for it,” said a police officer.