Everything was normal that night for the residents of a small rented house on the second floor of a building in Vennala in the heart of Kochi city, until they heard a knock on the door.
It was already midnight, but the family of four – a young man, his live-in partner and two children – were still awake. He opened the door and found a group of casually dressed men at his doorstep. He soon realized that he was trapped as they were members of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF) of the Kochi City Police.
It didn’t take long for the undercover police to find what they were looking for – 50 grams of suspected methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, a lab-made synthetic drug. There was an eerie silence in the house. The joy of two children – a five-year-old girl and her younger brother – could not dispel the uneasiness in the air.
An officer said, “When he realized he was caught, he cooperated with the police. The police tried to keep the atmosphere calm. They did not handcuff him because they did not want to scare the children. Some of them played with the children while others completed the search and arrest process.”
no shortage of drama
The drama was still pending. As the police were completing the documentation process, the man walked out of the house, but the police chased him. In the scuffle, one of them broke his leg. The accused is chilling in jail. This episode is one of the many dramatic moments that the anti-narcotics branch of Kerala Police experiences regularly.
The Vennala incident is one of the 6,914 cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Kerala’s commercial hub Ernakulam in 2025. And the man was one of 7,463 people caught in drug-related crimes in the district last year. The contraband seized from his house was added to 3.4 kg of suspected MDMA seized from the district. The amount of suspected marijuana seized during the last year reached almost a disturbing tonne – 986.35 kilograms.
what do the statistics say
While Kochi recorded 1,268 cases in 2020 and 1,262 cases in 2021, it rose to 3,901 in 2022. The number almost doubled to 6,718 the next year, fell to 4,512 in 2024 and then peaked at 6,914 last year, according to data obtained from Kochi City and Ernakulam Rural police.
According to the State Crime Records Bureau data till October, Kochi is followed by Thiruvananthapuram (3,882 cases), Malappuram (3,792), Kozhikode (3,447) and Kollam (2,963). The pattern is the same, the number of cases has increased manifold in the last five years. Police say the number of cases reported annually represents only a glimpse of the real crisis.
A member of the anti-drugs squad revealed, “We act on any information only after verifying it to the maximum extent possible. Yet, when we chased 15 leads we managed to catch a criminal. Even when the intelligence is correct, it is often difficult to trace a small quantity of a substance as criminals can easily hide or destroy it.”
Officials chasing drug smugglers say smugglers are changing their business working style Very often. KA Abdul Salam, assistant commissioner of the Narcotics Wing of Kochi City Police, says, “Ganja is mostly smuggled from Odisha, while synthetic drugs are mainly sourced from Bengaluru and Delhi. Some foreign students are suspected to be involved in large-scale production of synthetic drugs. We have also come across cases of smugglers importing synthetic drugs from abroad.”
new technologies
A police source revealed, “Recently, it has been found that ganja smugglers are moving away from traditional methods following increased surveillance at railway stations. Some people bring it by road. Cases of smugglers dumping packets containing large quantities of contraband at designated places outside running trains have also been found. In one case, ganja was found stuffed in the tire tube of a bicycle.”
In December, the excise team had arrested a 35-year-old man from Muvattupuzha for selling synthetic drugs by filling them in juice straws. His working style The idea was to drop straws in public places and share the image of the place with their customers.
When it comes to synthetic drugs, the police have identified a five-tier domestic network of smuggling. An officer involved in several raids says, “At the bottom of the network are allegedly gangs operating in Bengaluru and Delhi. From there, wholesale dealers buy the stuff in quantities of around 150-200 grams. They sell it to other peddlers in small packets of 5 grams or 10 grams. It is again divided into smaller units of 1 gram and sold to the next layer of peddlers. They sell it to individuals or small groups of users. Sell.”
Students often become victims of this menace. They become users first and then sellers to finance the new habit. Sellers and consumers reportedly use encrypted messaging platforms to finalize deals.
“Often smugglers drop the substance at a point and send the location to the user. The delay in getting details from communication platforms often hinders the investigation. Another major challenge is to produce witnesses before the court. Even when a seizure is made from a public place, people hesitate to come forward as witnesses for fear of consequences,” the officer says. According to available data, till October 2025, accused were convicted in 18,596 cases in the state, while 452 were acquitted.
fatal entertainment
According to psychiatrists, easy availability of drugs is a major contributor to this danger. Anoop Vincent, president of the Kerala state branch of the Indian Psychiatric Society, says, “The ease of concealing drugs has also led to an increase in cases of poly-drug addiction. People often start using drugs recreationally, only to become regular users. This leads to dependency and in turn leads to trafficking. Middle-class youth, and often dysfunctional families, are easy prey.”
He cites the case of a class eight boy, the son of an alcoholic father and a non-resident Indian (NRI) mother, who became addicted to ganja by the time he was in class ten and turned to smuggling.
“He came to me at the age of 18. He wanted to somehow escape from the world of substance abuse because people would often beat him. He got treatment and got rid of the addiction,” says Dr Vincent, professor and head of the department of psychiatry at Sree Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences at Chalakka near Kunnukara in Ernakulam. However, high expenses make de-addiction treatment inaccessible to economically weaker people.
He also remembers how a few months ago a group of people had forged his prescription to buy some psychotropic drugs. The police have registered the case spontaneously. The tragic experience of Akash (name changed to protect identity), a 30-year-old creative professional from Thrissur confirms the views of the police and medical experts.
When he was 18, he started using cannabis to escape the trauma caused by ragging in college. Over the next few years, he found himself becoming a drug addict and depressed and was ultimately driven to a suicide attempt before beginning addiction treatment. Akash says, “After leaving engineering college, I moved to Kochi around 2017. By that time drug trafficking was very common in Kochi. I never found it difficult to get drugs, although I mostly used cannabis.”
He was always careful not to buy substances in ‘bulk’ to avoid police surveillance. Akash, who has moved to another city for work, says, “I used to buy ganja for a week or two from different people. Users usually never find out from where a seller is getting it.”
breaking the chains
He believes, “I come to Kochi occasionally and these days, one can smell ganja everywhere in the city. I have noticed that a lot of young users are unaware of the medical and socio-legal consequences of drug abuse.” “Had it not been for the treatment and support from my doctor and family, I would not be here now to share my experience,” says Akash, who overcame the deadly addiction through continuous therapy and the support of those close to him.
Rajiv Jayadevan, convenor of the research cell of the Kerala unit of the Indian Medical Association, draws attention to the larger public health concerns involved in drug abuse. He lists increased incidents of violence, road accidents, job loss and family disintegration as common consequences of drug abuse. They also noted that there has been an increase in infections such as HIV due to incidents of needle sharing and unsafe and high-risk sexual behavior among drug users.
He lamented that shortage of manpower and required skill sets in the healthcare sector adds to the crisis. He believes, “Substance abuse carries some stigma, but there is a need for adequate training and reorientation of health professionals to overcome this and treat addiction as a medical condition.”
rehabilitation, not punishment
The police seem to agree with this. Amid the rise in cases, enforcers are encouraging users arrested with small quantities of substances to use Section 64(A) of the NDPS Act which focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishment. This provision helps people avoid prosecution by voluntarily seeking de-addiction treatment from authorized practitioners. Nearly 40 people have used this provision in Ernakulam district alone last year.
The dark forces that trap someone into drug addiction may still be lurking around. The real height lies in saying ‘no’ firmly.
