10,741 drug dealers held, poppy on 104 acres destroyed in KP

PESHAWAR: The police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have arrested 10,741 drug dealers and destroyed poppy cultivated on 104 acres of land in different parts of the province in the last almost six months, officials told The News.

An official said that actions in every district of the province have been accelerated against the dealers involved in selling, smuggling and manufacturing of drugs. The operations against drug dealers have also been accelerated in the newly merged districts, which were once the main route and centre of smuggling and selling of heroin, hashish, ice and opium for years.

"We have arrested 10,741 drug dealers from across the province in special operations during the current year. The operations are going on daily in all the districts where police have been directed to tighten the noose around these criminals," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sanaullah Abbasi told The News.

The police chief said over 9,231 kg of various kinds of drugs have been recovered in operations against drug dealers. A number of encounters with the drug lords also took place in many districts during raids, he added.

Sanaullah Abbasi said the police in different districts have eradicated poppy crops on 104 acres of land. He added these operations were conducted in newly merged districts as well as some settled towns where the crop was being cultivated in remote areas.

KP Police authorities estimated the street value of the drugs that could have been possibly produced by the poppy that was destroyed by the police as 41 million US dollars in the international market.

According to senior police officials, as many as 64 kilos of ice, 423 kilos of heroin, 8104 kilos of hashish and 640 kilos of opium were recovered during actions against the drug dealers in KP in 2020.

They added over 10,000 cases have been registered against smugglers and sellers during the current year. Most of the drug dealers in Peshawar and other cities get ice, hashish and heroin from the Khyber district.

A number of operations in these newly merged districts have reduced the supply from the tribal districts but it is yet to be completely stopped to save tens of thousands of people including students and youth who are easily getting hashish, ice and heroin in the cities for the last many years.

The Peshawar Police had launched “Ice Free Peshawar” campaign a couple of years back to go after the drug dealers. More aggressive operations are needed to cut the supply route besides going after the manufacturers and smugglers across the province.