Not enough being done to curb drug trade in Goa: Panel

PANAJI - The Goa excise department has not booked a single narcotics related case in the last four years, despite a designated cell to tackle drug trade, a legislative panel has said.

Chairman of the state ad hoc committee on finance Agnelo Fernandes has also recommended starting of a full fledged cell to curb narcotics trade in Goa.

“The cell is not functional for the last several years, as a result of which drug peddlers got a golden opportunity to establish their trade in Goa having connections with foreign drug peddlers specifically along the coastal belts,” Fernandes, a ruling party legislator, said Monday.

“The committee noticed that the anti narcotics cell in the police department is not functioning properly and the public is losing faith in the police department,” he added.

For the last few months Goa has been rocked by a police-politician-drug mafia nexus in which several officers of the anti narcotics cell of the Goa police were linked.

Seven policemen attached to the elite unit have been arrested for their links to the drug mafia, in which Home Minister Ravi Naik’s son has also been linked.