Thiruvananthapuram: As a measure to prevent the drug trafficking rising in the state, Kerala Police lists out 1,681 key drug traffickers and name 162 of them to be taken into preventive detention.
These recommendations have been handed over to the state government where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan holds the home portfolio.
Kannur tops the list with 465 traffickers active in business, followed by Wayanad and Kasargod with 210 each, Kollam,189 and Kozhikode rural with 184.
The police have also identified 114 drug dealers whose assets will now be confiscated and have identified another 65 who have become rich through this criminal activity.
In this calendar year, the Police and Excise have until October 24, arrested 779 people for dealing in drugs.
Over the few years the state witnessed a steeping increase in the drug trafficking cases.
An awareness campaign was launched recently by Kerala Government, by which a total of 19,391 panels have been set up across the state with socio-cultural activists and ASHA workers, among others, who would check the inflow of the drugs.
On the grounds of increasing trafficking of synthetic drugs like MDMA and LSD, the excise department also stated that it will take stringent action against repeated offenders. It said that if an offender has been arrested on grounds of the same crime for which he was punished earlier, the accused will be subjected to double punishment considering the earlier offence.
Through this, the habitual offenders involved in large scale drug trafficking may even get punishments up to death penalty according to the special provisions in NDPS act, which have not been utilised yet.
-IANS Inputs