Meghalaya Police breaks 50 year record in cash recovery
The record for the highest seizure or recovery of cash in the state in the last fifty years has been broken by Meghalaya Police with the recovery of Rs 45.6 lakh last year.
Meghalaya Director General of Police Dr LR Bishnoi announced the recovery of the records during a press conference at the police headquarters in Shillong on Tuesday.
Appreciating the dedicated effort of the men and women of the force, Bishnoi said that the fifty-year record has been broken after two consecutive cash recoveries in the last two years.
“Rs 36 lakh were recovered in 2022. But around Rs 45.6 lakh has been recovered in 2023, and Rs 60,000 have been recovered so far in 2024,” the DGP announced.
Biggest seizure of contraband in last 2 years, large number of women smugglers arrested
The state DGP highlighted the dangers of drug use and drug trafficking in the state, mentioning that there is staggering data on the size of the contraband and its traffickers.
In 2022, the police registered 116 cases, which increased to 189 last year. DGP Bishnoi revealed that 13 cases have been registered so far in the first two months of January and February this year.
From the year 2022, the number of arrests in connection with drug trafficking and smuggling is also continuously increasing.
234 people were arrested in 2022, 355 people were arrested in 2023 and 25 people were arrested in just a span of two months this year.
“There have been a total of 610 arrests since I joined and 10% of them are female traffickers, 61 are female and the rest are male,” Bishnoi said.
He further informed that they have recovered 7.5 kg heroin in 2022, 16.3 kg heroin in 2023 and about one kg heroin in the first two months of 2024. The police chief said the total seizure of heroin would be around 26 kilograms.
When it came to the illegal supply of marijuana, 3987 kg was recovered in 2022, around 1400 kg in 2023, and 4750 kg in the last two months of 2024.
The latest entry into the drug realm is Yabba tablets – a synthetic form of the narcotic manufactured inside Myanmar that passes through Bangladesh before entering North East India.
Nearly 19,000 pills were seized in the state in 2022. This figure will increase to more than 60,000 tablets in 2023.
This year, around 2000 Yabba tablets have been seized within two months.
Various psychotropic pills have also been sold for sale to addicts and its seizures are expected to increase to 16,928 in 2022, 32,298 in 2023 and 600 in 2024.
Meghalaya DGP Bishnoi also revealed that for the first time in the history of Meghalaya Police, uniformed personnel have recovered the powerful and extremely dangerous crystal meth drug weighing 14.2 kg.
“Crystal meth is a very expensive drug. The rate in the market is around Rs 1.5 crore per kg,” the DGP informed.
Similarly, 28,000 bottles in 2022, 88,000 bottles in 2023, a total of 112 bottles of cough syrup were recovered in the last two months.
On the recovery of stolen mobile phones across the state, 137 handsets were recovered in 2022, 408 in 2023 and 30 handsets in 2024 so far.
A total of 67 vehicles were recovered in 2022, which increased to 157 in 2023. So far this year, 12 vehicles have been recovered.
The police chief also revealed that the total drug cost of the seizure, as per the current market rate, was a staggering Rs 75 crore in 2022.
This figure increases dramatically to Rs 170 crore in 2023, while drugs worth about Rs 21 crore have already been recovered in 2024.
“So, drugs worth around Rs 300 crore were recovered during the last two years,” Bishnoi said.
Citing examples of drug robberies in the state, he mentioned an operation conducted by Ri Bhoi police which led to the seizure of a total of 4,750 kg of pure grade marijuana in Hala district of Tripura, which revealed that smugglers and smugglers are using road transport. are using it. route to move their consignments.
“The state is still very sensitive due to its proximity to the Golden Triangle areas. Earlier it was a transit but now it has become both destination and transit point,” confirmed the DGP.
He also said that the number of drug users or addicts is continuously increasing in the state, which is a worrying sign for everyone.
To deal with this menace, Meghalaya Police has adopted some strategies like creating awareness especially among the youth by organizing awareness programs in school, college and university and running continuous campaigns against drug smugglers.
It was revealed that many drug traffickers are repeat offenders and many of them belong to interstate gangs.
We are also using technologies to catch drug smugglers and our special branch and CID are playing a vital role in using technology to trace the backward and forward links of drug smugglers, says Bishnoi. Are.
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