Small fish

Why in the News

A multi-agency crackdown named Operation Trident has led to 18 arrests in an international drug syndicate operating across the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh corridor. The raids followed Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) investigations after an alleged Myanmar-based kingpin was arrested in Delhi in May. Carriers are being caught, but the “big sharks” who run the trade still escape.

What is the government’s drug-control strategy?

1. What it is: The Vision Document on Drug Control is the Centre’s plan to break drug networks, like a single battle plan for every agency involved. It runs from 2026 to 2029.
2. Who is involved: States and Union Territories, over 40 Ministries, central agencies and the pharmaceutical sector share the work.
3. NCORD launch: The Union Home Minister launched it in June at a meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD), a four-tier mechanism linking drug enforcement agencies from the national to the district level.
4. Targets: It aims to dismantle 100 major cartels and improve prosecution outcomes, with drug networks to be eradicated nationwide by the end of 2029.
5. The takeaway: The plan is more focused, but it will work only if agencies coordinate, implement it steadily and strike the real brains behind the trade.

Do rising arrests mean fewer drugs?

1. Arrests: Arrests for drug offences rose by over half in 2025 compared with the previous year.
2. NDPS cases: Cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, India’s main law punishing the production, sale and trafficking of narcotics, rose by nearly 53% over the same period.
3. Seizures are not outcomes: The quantity of drugs seized does not show whether drug availability or consumption has fallen.
4. Human cost in Punjab: Punjab remains the prominent example of drugs as a public health crisis:
   • anti-drug activists were allegedly killed in Mansa and Gurdaspur;
   • a Sangrur father who flagged how easily synthetic drugs were available allegedly died by suicide.
5. Unprotected whistleblowers: People who speak out against drug trafficking face danger, which raises questions about how they are protected.

Why do the big sharks escape?

1. Foreign kingpins: In several cases, the foreign-based operatives who run the networks, the “big sharks”, remain at large.
2. Mundra port case (2021): Agencies seized about 3,000 kg of heroin in Gujarat, but the main Afghanistan-based suppliers are yet to be prosecuted.
3. Myanmar suppliers: Dismantling the Trident network needs every supplier in Myanmar identified and successfully prosecuted.
4. Carrier focus: Enforcement targets individual carriers, the “small fish”, far more than whole networks, so the trade survives each arrest.

Challenges

1. Agency capacity: The NCB faces capacity and manpower constraints against a rising caseload.
2. Changing routes: Synthetic drugs and darknet routes evolve faster than enforcement adapts.
3. Coordination gaps: Gaps between State agencies weaken a strategy built on many agencies working together.

Way Forward

1. Follow the money: Investigating agencies should trace the money trail to identify the ultimate beneficiaries and secure their conviction.
2. Protect activists: State police should protect anti-drug activists and residents who report local drug networks.
3. Measure outcomes: The Centre should track drug availability and consumption, not only seizures and arrests.
4. Joint investigations: The NCB should run joint investigations with source and transit countries to prosecute foreign suppliers.

Conclusion

Rising arrests show more enforcement, not a smaller drug trade, as long as the financiers behind the networks stay beyond reach. Whether the cartel target produces convictions of kingpins rather than carriers is the measure to watch.

Back2Basics: Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)

1. Role: It is the nodal agency for drug law enforcement and for coordination under the NDPS Act.
2. Functions: It investigates trafficking, busts cartels, seizes contraband and supports intelligence and awareness on drug abuse.
3. Partners: It coordinates with States and with international bodies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2018, GS3, 15 marks] India’s proximity to two of the world’s biggest illicit opium-growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking. What counter-measures should be taken to prevent the same?”