The New
Indian Express: Chennai: Saturday, October 25,
2014.
Customs and drug enforcement agencies may have
ostensibly intensified their screening at airports, but no less than 68 Indian
citizens are languishing in jails across Malaysia after having been arrested
and charged with drug trafficking there.
Information obtained from the High Commission of
India in Kuala Lumpur through an RTI petition shockingly revealed that 44 of
these drug mules were arrested between January and September alone. While 28 of
them have been convicted with jail time stretching until 2025, the remaining
are in judicial remand, awaiting their day in court.
All of them have been charged under various
sections of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952, with trafficking as the primary
charge.
In addition, a few of them have been charged for
intent to sell and excessive use. The records sent to the Ministry of External Affairs reveal that quite a number
of the arrested mules are under 30, with a 19-year-old youth also behind bars.
The swift pile-up of drug trafficking arrests could
be a result of two things the Malaysian narcotics department’s crackdown on
entry of drugs and a general increase in the number of couriers carrying
substances from India.
A majority of those arrested are believed to have
done their drug run through the Chennai airport.
Activist Jamal S, who sought the information,
strongly believes that such a large number of drug mules can’t operate without
some inside assistance. “There are people who recruit young men and women who
have financial trouble in areas like Triplicane and Mannady. They give a little
money and urge them to do the drug running. Their families believe that they
are going for some ‘work’ there and come to know the truth only when they are arrested,”
he said, adding “I believe this is happening in collusion with customs officers
at Chennai Airport who were on duty at that time and allowed them to pass.”