Drug trafficking: preventive detention recommended for 40 persons in seven months
Police officers heading anti-narcotics squad operations within Kozhikode city limits described it as one of the toughest actions taken to break the chain of habitual offenders in the illegal trade. They said that the detention period could be extended further, based on reviews by a specially constituted State-level advisory board headed by a High Court judge.
'The orders on the remaining 30 cases are still under the Home department's consideration. As the special squads continue to work extensively to identify more such suspects, the number may further rise,' said a senior officer of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force. He added that all police districts maintain similar lists awaiting action from the Home department.
In addition to preventive detention measures, the city police, in the past seven months, have forfeited illegally amassed assets — including vehicles and other properties — belonging to 10 drug pushers earlier arrested in major synthetic drug trafficking cases. Their bank accounts were also frozen following stringent measures taken with the approval of the competent authority under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976.
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