'Goa not narcotics haven like Mexico, Columbia'

Panaji, May 2 (IANS) Goa is not a narcotics haven, it does not have a drug mafia and has not taken after Mexico or Columbia, where drug cartels exercise immense power, Goa's new Director General of Police (DGP) T.N. Mohan said here Friday.

"Drugs are available in Goa...It is still my opinion that Goa is not Mexico. Goa does not have a mafia or a lawlessness which is there in those places," Mohan said, adding drugs are available in Goa in "nominal" amount.

The top cop's comments came at a time when Ravi Naik, a former home minister and Mohan's immediate predecessor DGP Kishen Kumar have been indicted in a legislative committee report for sheltering Goa's drug mafia.

While Naik has been accused in the report of having links with the mafia along with his son Roy, Kumar has been described as a "kingpin" in the police department, who protected the drug dealers.

DGP Mohan said Goa was not a transit point for drugs like Punjab's Jalandhar city, where according to the top cop, thousands of tons of hard drugs including heroin were shipped from, eventually leading to pilferage of the substance in local community.

"It (drug) is even an election issue there," Mohan said, further reiterating that Goa was not a "drug haven".

"We have a lid on it (the drug problem)," Mohan said.

Over the last few years, Goa has earned a reputation of being a narco-tourism destination after a string of cases which exposed links between police officials, politicians and the narcotics mafia, both foreign and domestic.

Several police officials were arrested after their links with two foreign drug dealers were exposed by a Scandanavian model, who was dating a drug dealer. The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the case.

The drugging, sexual assault and homicide of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in 2008 and subsequent police cover up had also garnered international headlines slotting Goa as a destination for sex and narco-tourism.