Goa Drug Lords Trap Young Girls

Goa drug lords trap young girls

Preetam Srivastava Panjim
Two months back, a minor Italian girl Dabolim (name changed) was held at Mumbai airport while trying to board an Indian Airlines flight with cocaine in her carbonised suitcase. Similarly, Sabrina and Elisa (names changed), both minors from Israel and Germany, were held at Mumbai airport for possessing psychotropic substances. Sunanda (name changed), a 16-year-old Bangladeshi girl was nabbed in Goa in April on charges of drug peddling.
Young girls like these have become an intricate part of a fast-spreading syndicate for drug outsourcing among players of underworld in the tourist hotspot of Goa. A cursory scan of these incidents projects a grim picture of the darker side of human relationship and its brazen abuse.
A case in point is that of Dabolim. A student of class 10, she fell in love with DJ Tomar while having a ball at Goa's Anjuna beach. Amir, a Goa-based operator for Israeli drug lord, Agai, later befriended her and lured her with a free trip abroad. He only asked her to carry a carbonised suitcase. Dabolim happily agreed. It was only after she was arrested in Mumbai that she came to know that the suitcase she was carrying had a cavity in the frame that contained cocaine.
The case of Sabrina and Elisa was a bit different. They were first addicted to drugs and when they fell short of money to fulfil their needs, they were asked to carry a bag and they too fell prey. The business hub of Panjim is a paradise for drug lords where vulnerable minors, preferably girls, are identified as future carriers to smuggle the contraband.
Subsequent probe revealed that there were hundreds of such victims who were lured with a foreign trip in lieu of carrying contraband to a foreign destination. But with their arrest, they were summarily forgotten like Dabolim who is at a Goa protective home while Amir and his Israeli boss Agai enjoy a free run.
Ironically, Goa is the only State to have a Children's Act which was enacted in 2003 to protect children's rights. Goa DGP Neeraj Kumar felt that lack of awareness and absence of complaints rendered the Act ineffective. He said that since 2003, only two cases of paedophilia were reported.
Head of South Asia, UNIFEM (New Delhi) Archana Tamang claimed that child and women abuse was more serious in Goa and sexual exploitation and flesh trade rackets were rampant here.
Gomantak Times Editor Sujay Gupta claimed that 'Carlos the Jackal' and 'Hayo' were active in North Goa while 'Raju' and 'Sex' were active in the South. 'Carlos the Jackal', brings girls from Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar etc, to sell them on the beaches of Anjuna and Colangute. 'Raju' is a Tamilian who smuggles boys and girls from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and AP etc while 'Sex' were agents providing services to paedophiles and others inside vehicles on roadsides.