No drug mafia in Goa, asserts minister
By IANSTuesday, December 21, 2010
PANAJI - There is no drug mafia in Goa, Home Minister Ravi Naik said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji on the sidelines of a function, Naik also exhorted the media to point out drug dealers to him, so that he could act against them.
There is no drug mafia in the state. We are personally ensuring that drug trade does not take root here, Naik said. You show me where there is drug mafia, I will take action, he added.
The home minister’s son Roy Naik has been linked to the drug mafia by a Swedish model, who was a paramour of Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has also accused Naik and his son of links with drug trade in the state’s coastal areas, visited by nearly 2.4 million tourists annually.
We broke the backbone of drug trade. We have intensified our anti-drugs operations in the coast, Naik said.
The home minister’s son has also been named by Fiona Mackeown, the mother of slain British teenager Scarlett Keeling, of having links to the drug mafia. She said this in a Goa court during the hearing of the case of her daughter’s sexual assault and subsequent death in 2008.
