Cocaine Making Its Way Into India at Alarming Rate, Finance Minister Warns

There has been an uptick in the quantities of cocaine seized by authorities in Asia and Africa in 2021-22. Traditionally, Europe and North America have been regarded as the biggest cocaine markets.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday expressed some serious concerns over the rise in drug smuggling into India.

Citing the findings of "Smuggling in India Report 2021-22," Sitharaman said that cocaine has started to infiltrate the country in a “big way.”

“Is it because India is no longer just a transit country for smugglers?... Is it because India is becoming a consuming country that you have paths for such things coming into the country?” Sitharaman wondered.

The new report underscores that besides the confiscation of over 3,400 kg of heroin by the Indian agencies, more than 320 kilograms of cocaine were also detected in containerized cargo at Indian ports in the financial year 2021-22. It said that the quantity of cocaine seized in India has witnessed an increase after a dip during the COVID pandemic.

The report point out that most of the cocaine smuggled into the country was came from the Afghanistan-Iran route.

Globally, trafficking by sea accounted for over 90 percent of cocaine seized by authorities in 2021, the report notes.

Sitharaman further said that smugglers shouldn’t be “smarter” than officials, backing enhanced collaboration with Indian enforcement agencies and their global peers to crack down on crime syndicates.