Cocaine Coming Into India, Go After Smugglers: Nirmala Sitharaman To Agencies

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged enforcement agencies to ramp up vigil and go after big-time smugglers involved in drug-trafficking and sending ‘mountains’ of illegal drugs into India.

Addressing the 65th Founding Day of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) here on Monday, Sitharaman said cocaine and other psychotropic drugs have started coming into India, hence the agencies have figure out if the country is becoming a consuming country.

“DRI should make sure that smugglers are not smarter than you. Each one of these (smuggling) cases, at the earliest point of time, must come to the conclusion,” Sitharaman said.

Smugglers must be arrested and prosecuted, and it’s the responsibility of the DRI to ensure that big handlers of such smuggling activities must face the law of the land.

“There is a need to work hard and catch those sending a mountain of drugs. Need greater access to a bilateral agreement with foreign countries as technology has enabled us to do things which earlier was not possible,” Sitharaman remarked.

The Finance minister had an advice for DRI.

“Start a workshop with the cooperation of Intelligence agencies for better cooperation, get actionable intelligence to crack the smugglers,” she suggested.