From 9 in 2022 to 1 in 2023, Indian waters saw sharp decline in drug trafficking cases: ICG official

The number of drug trafficking cases in the Indian waters dropped sharply in 2023, a year after nine such cases were recorded, a senior Coast Guard official said as he credited enhanced surveillance and seamless coordination among security agencies for the decline.

Bhisham Sharma, Inspector General and Commander Coast Region (West), said the Indian Coast Guard has also deployed more ships on the fringes of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and even beyond it after merchant navy vessels were attacked in the Red Sea last year.

Officials had earlier said that after the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, the Indian waters witnessed a rise in the drug trafficking cases, with security agencies hauling narcotics worth thousands of crore rupees. ''In 2021 and 2022, we did have intelligence-based operations on narco smuggling. We were successful in apprehending the smugglers. We had five incidents in 2021, nine in 2022. However, there was only one such case in 2023,'' Sharma told PTI in an interview.

The Coast Guard has stepped up surveillance of the Lakshadweep islands. Few of the islands are uninhabited so they become a good staging post, he said. ''Therefore there are challenges. So in order to address those challenges we have regular deployment of our ships and aircraft on the Lakshadweep islands and we see to it that there are drug traffickers operating in that area. We board each and every vessel passing through it,'' he said.

Sharma said the Coast Guard being the lead intelligence in the coastal borders, intelligence is shared with all stakeholders. In all intelligence-based operations, there is a seamless coordination among various agencies.

''We have regular interaction with the Indian Navy, with Customs (Department), DRI (Department of Revenue Intelligence) and all other security agencies involved in overall security of the country. We keep sharing our information with each other,'' the senior official said.

On the recent incidents of attacks on merchant navy vessels in the Red Sea, Sharma said this necessitates enhanced surveillance efforts. A number of ships have been deployed on the fringes of the EEZ.

''We are sharing our deployment pattern even with the Indian Navy and naval ships are deployed even beyond the EEZ. We have stepped up our surveillance in the EEZ. More number of Dornier aircraft sorties are being conducted so that we enhance our surveillance efforts to ensure that there are no such untoward incidents in Indian waters,'' he added. On the presence of the Chinese navy in Indian waters, Sharma said Chinese vessels traversing are reported in Indian waters, but noted that nothing is closer to the coastline.

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