Goa: Mumbai actor says tout openly offered her drugs at Calangute, peddlers doing brisk business at Candolim

PANAJI: A Mumbai-based model Rayya Labib who was in the coastal state of Goa over the weekend said she was offered drugs while walking along the road at Candolim and touts were openly selling drugs in the area. The peddlers and touts selling drugs in Goa were so many in number, like vendors selling mangoes at Mumbai traffic signals during the mango season, she alleged.

There was no policing and the touts selling drugs and pimps doing flesh trade had a gala time on the road, she stated.

“I was walking down the Candolim main road on Saturday evening with a friend – we were in Goa for a shoot and this man comes up to me and asks me if I need any drugs or anything else. Drugs has become such a big issue in Goa that there were peddlers openly selling drugs on the Candolim road during the late evening hours,” she told this reporter, adding that she was offered drugs at three different locations on the Calangute-Candolim road.

As  Goa is in the peak tourism season with New Year festivities just a week away, drug peddling has assumed gigantic proportions in the tourist paradise.

Calangute Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira had declared a war against pimps and touts in the area, but the huge inflow of domestic tourists makes it impossible to police the area and keep track of the pimps and touts said a senior police official from the Goa police.