The Drug Traffic in the Punjab
| Author | F. L. Newman |
| Published date | 01 January 1930 |
| Date | 01 January 1930 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3000300109 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Drug Traffic in the
Punjab
By F. L. NEWMAN, M.B.E.
Indian
Police, Punjab, India
THE contraband traffic in drugs in the Punjab is confined
chiefly to cocaine, opium and
charas
(an exudation of
the flowers of the hemp plant). I will endeavour to present
my readers with a fairly comprehensive view of the situation
in regard to this illicit traffic by a brief description of the
nature of the drugs, the sources from which they are obtained,
the uses to which they are put, the profits realized from their
illicit sale, the methods employed in smuggling the contraband,
and finally the steps taken by
the
authorities to check the
illegal trade.
Probably the best known and most dangerous of these
drugs is cocaine.
Sailors visiting the big ports of India have initiated
dissolute characters, who are always to be found loitering
about such places, into the mysteries of the cocaine habit.
These in
turn
have passed the secret to the people upcountry.
The
pernicious practice has thus spread to the large towns in
the Punjab and is now fairly prevalent in Amritsar, Lahore
and Rawalpindi. There is a big demand for the drug in these
places, especially as its use is said to enhance sexual enjoyment.
The
requirements of addicts of the drug are met from big
stocks smuggled into the country from German and Japanese
sources by wholesale Indian and Chinese dealers, who have
settled in Calcutta and other ports in India. These folk act
as general suppliers to themembers of the smuggling fraternity
in the various provinces of India.
Much ingenuity is exhibited by the contrabandists in
their efforts to evade the vigilance of the Excise and Police
officers and to get the drug into the country.
The
stuff is
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sometimes concealed in the cavities of hollow objects, toys for
instance, or in the woodwork and lining of articles of furniture
specially prepared for the purpose. These are then despatched
and imported into India under a regular customs declaration.
At other times cocaine has been known to have been sent
with medicinal drugs labelled as ' quinine,' which it closely
resembles in appearance. Officersand members of the crew of
ships, especially foreign ships, calling at Indian ports are
approached and heavily bribed to induce them to carry the
drug on their vessels. Ships carrying this contraband are
usually met some distance from the port for which the cocaine
is intended, and the consignment is made over to agents who
have
put
out to sea in boats to meet the vessel according to a
pre-arranged plan.
The
boats then make for an unfrequented
part of the shore where the stuff is unloaded and conveyed to
the storehouses of the wholesale dealers. A case of this
description occurred recently. A large quantity of cocaine
was in the course of being unloaded from a vessel into a boat
near Calcutta when the officers of the law suddenly came on
the scene.
The
smugglers, in their endeavours to save
themselves from the clutches of the police, promptly jumped
into mid-stream, utterly regardless of the risk to their lives
involved in the rash step. Needless to say, however, this did
not avail them much.
The
methods resorted to by the smugglers for getting the
cocaine upcountry are as varied and ingenious as those adopted
for importing the drug into India.
In
a good many cases the
channel used is the post.
The
dope is packed in small
parcels and forwarded by ordinary parcel post.
The
same
post
office
is seldom used twice: every new packet is despatched
from a separate post office,
but
in no circumstances from
the post
office
of the locality where the sender happens
to be residing.
The
parcel, according to a pre-arranged
plan, is forwarded by the sender under an assumed name
to the addressee, who is also pseudonymous. Both parties,
however, are already aware of the names to be assumed.
The
receiver smoothes the way for the delivery of the consignment
by securing the interest of the delivery postman by the pay-
ment to him of a sufficiently attractive
'tip.'
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