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1,360 drug dealers active in the city: Behind every corner, there is a drug dealer!

* Police planning crackdown on drug pushers

By Muhammad Aayan

LAHORE: The city is now crawling with drug dealers, with more than 1,360 drug pushers operating in six police divisions of the city, according to official documents and data obtained by Daily Times on Thursday.

The break up shows that Cantt division is at the top of the list with 343 active drug pushers.

The Saddar division has 234, Model Town police division has 213, Allama Iqbal Town has 153 and Civil Lines division has 141 drug pushers operating there, catering to an alarmingly large clientele. The dealers use different methods to carry all kinds of drugs across the city, and their clientele mostly consists of youths from various classes of the society.

Some of the drug dealers sell their merchandise using a rickshaw, as it is easy to hide drugs in the three-wheeler and they manage to move around the city keeping a low profile. While others use handcarts and are disguised as vegetable vendors or even have small burger points for this purpose. Customers usually come to the burger spot and ask for a particular man, which indicates that the person wants to buy drugs.

The consumption of hashish has surpassed the usage of all other drugs, which includes opium, morphine, ecstasy pills, heroine, cocaine and many others. The rate of 25 grams of top quality hashish costs around Rs 1,500, while the same amount can also be bought for Rs 1000, depending on the quality of the drug. The best quality hashish is sold at Rs 27,000 per kilogramme and its transportation charges to different cities inflate the price to Rs 33,000. Moreover, there are 600 bootleggers in the city that cater to the needs of thousands of alcohol consumers.

“We manage to get drugs even when the police blocks all supply lines to the city. It does cost us more, but we can get them easily from anywhere without any problems. Even when the police catch us, they let us go after receiving a small bribe”, said a group of addicts who purchase drugs on a regular basis.

A drug dealer told Daily Times that selling drugs has become very organised. “Our customers call us on our mobile phones, and we drop the stuff at the location of their convenience”. “The risk of getting caught is always there, but being such a lucrative business, and with police officials also on the take, we have no reason to stop selling drugs”, he said. The dealer said his customers include college students, fashion models, truck and rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers and government officials.

Drug usage among the youth, especially in educational institutions has become a big issue. The administration of one of the city’s major private universities has put a ban on the sale, purchase and consumption of hashish on campus after receiving reports of increased drug use amongst the students.

Crackdown: Divisional superintendents of the city held a meeting to consider launching a crackdown on drug pushers. They decided that an operation against these drug pushers would be launched before Eid.

Civil Lines SP Haider Ashraf said it was decided in the meeting that every superintendent would direct their respective police station to catch drug dealers red-handed so cases could be registered against them on the spot. “Drug pushers often escape police raids, that is why we are using local informants to tip us off, and police constables would pose as customers, after which the dealers would be arrested immediately,” he said.

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