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LTTE fall will alter drug trade in India
Mumbai was a key link in this supply chain as LTTE's conduits often used the city to bring in drugs from Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, and the Rajasthan and Punjab border. The consignments were then transported to coastal towns in Tamil Nadu such as Tuticorin, Rameshwaram, Ramnad, Nagapattinam, Kochi and a host of localities inhabited by fishing communities on the south-east coast. From there, the drugs would be shipped to Velvettiturai, a township located along the northern coast of Sri Lanka and formerly under LTTE control. Thus, over the years, drug enforcement agencies in Mumbai have arrested several Sri Lankan Tamils, and charged them with smuggling narcotics. "The accused were found to be highly motivated. They were taking the risk not just for the money, but because they believed in the LTTE's cause," said a public prosecutor. "The LTTE started using the revenue from narcotics to finance its armed struggle ever since the conflict started in 1983,'' said intelligence expert B Raman. However, the LTTE's role in the narcotics business was different from other international gangs such as the `D' Company, which indulges in direct selling of drugs. Prof G H Peiris, a Sri Lankan security expert who writes for the US magazine 'Jane's Defence Weekly', believes that the LTTE's involvement in the international drug trade was largely in the form of bulk delivery of heroin and cannabis from producing areas in Asia to consuming countries. He said that there did not appear to be any extensive involvement of the LTTE in drug 'peddling' in the retail market or participation in opium growing and refining of heroin. According to Raman, the LTTE's capabilities have been hit hard since last year when the Sri Lankan navy destroyed the vessels it used to ship drug consignments to other countries. He also added that despite the LTTE's involvement in the narcotics-trade, Prabhakaran remained a strict disciplinarian as far as his own cadres were concerned. "The complete annihilation of the LTTE is definitely going to affect the dynamics of the drug trade in this part of the world in a big way,'' said an official from Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). "The group was a major player for decades and only time will tell how its sudden collapse is going to change the modus operandi of local gangs in India,'' he added.
Posted by: 2009-05-30 |
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