India’s worsening heroin problem

Both states border Pakistan, one of the world’s main poppy exporters. The two leaders, Myanmar and Afghanistan, are also not far. Poppies yield opium, morphine and heroin. The ascendancy of heroin in Punjab and its ties with organized crime have been widely reported.  Kashmir&’s capacity for heroin trafficking and addiction is on the rise and needs urgent attention from law enforcers and the media. Heroin can cripple an entire generation and culture indefinitely.

In the small town of Uri, near the Line of Control in Kashmir, a major drug operation potentially worth a billion dollars was busted by the Jammu and Kashmir State Police. Kameshwar Puri of J and K State Police intercepted a truck crossing the Line of Control border which was supposedly carrying 150 sacks of almonds from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to Uri. Puri found that 115 sacks contained a kilogram of acetyl morphine each. Acetyl morphine is one of the three highly active metabolites of heroin. According to Puri, the 115 kilos seized was the unadulterated, pure form of heroin, which was to be proliferated into about 500 kilograms for further distribution and shipment to the United States and Europe.

On investigation, the police found half of a pink Afghan currency note attached to every brick of heroin in every sack. The currency bills had consecutive serial numbers on the seized half, and were clearly aimed at establishing an organized tracking system for the drugs. The other halves of the notes were distributed all over India for an appropriate match. This meant that each heroin brick was meant to be couriered to a different place in India. Heroin intended to be smuggled into Europe and the United States is being routed via Greece, India and the United Arab Emirates and is ever increasing.

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