Goa drugs bust: 8 accused arrested by Pernem police at Arambol, sourced drugs from Mumbai

PANAJI: Initial investigation into the Arambol drugs bust case, has revealed that most of the drugs found in possession of eight Mumbai-based accused, were sourced from Mumbai and transported to Goa for personal consumption, as well as sale to other tourists.

This raises the question as to how the Mumbai unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was not able to get wind of a commercial quantity of narcotic drugs passing through Mumbai and destined for Goa.

It also raises suspicion on the cops manning the border checkpoints who are supposed to screen passengers traveling from another state for contraband.

The Goa Police on Saturday said they had busted a major drug racket near the well-known tourist hangout – a ‘sweet water lake’ near the ​Arambol beach in North Goa, arresting eight persons from Mumbai and seized commercial quantity of drugs worth Rs 1.20 lakh from them.

Police inspector in-charge of the Pernem police station in North Goa, Jivba Dalvi, was quoted by news agency IANS as saying: “the accused persons were arrested from Sweet Valley resort where they were staying, after a tipoff that they were carrying various banned substances with them.

“During the raid, we found various types of drugs consisting of 800 gm ganja, 34 gm charas, 60 cannabis seeds, LSD papers all worth Rs 1.20 lakh in the international market,” Dalvi told IANS.

“All the accused persons were searched thoroughly and all were found to be concealing and possessing various types of drugs. It was revealed that all had come to Goa to carry out drugs supply to tourists in the state,” Dalvi said.

The names of the accused who were arrested were given as Alex Romeo (25), Jeffrey Rodrigues (24), Sagar Jadhav (21) Adrian Kingston (21), Rohit Zende (20), Rushikesh Mahadik (21) Vaibhav Shigwan (21) and Prem Londhe (19), all of whom are residents of Bhandup, a North Eastern suburb of Mumbai.

The accused were booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act as well as the IPC.