Operation Gear Box
Source : PIB
GS III : Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism
What is discussed under Operation Gear Box?
- About the Order
- How it helps
Why in News ?
Recently, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) launched operation ‘Gear Box’ to stop heroin smuggling, seizes 39.5 kg of contraband from Kolkata port.
What is Operation Gear Box?
- Operation Gear Box is conducted to detect the hidden drugs in the gear boxes.
- The gears from old and used gearboxes were removed after opening them and plastic packets containing the narcotic substance were placed in the created cavity and the gearboxes were refitted to avoid detection.
- The drug syndicate has used this unique modus operandi to conceal heroin.
- These packets were shipped concealing inside this metal scrap with other metal scrap so that it would go unnoticed by the authorities.
- Examination and seizure proceedings by DRI under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Drug usage in India
- According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) World Drug Report 2022 India is one of the world’s single largest opiate
Photo by Colin Davis on Unsplash markets in terms of users.
- An intensification of trafficking in opiates originating in Afghanistan may be taking place eastwards, in addition to southwards and westwards along the traditional Balkan route.
- India has the fourth largest quantities of opium seized in 2020 at 5.2 tons and the third-highest amount of morphine was also seized from the country the same year at 0.7 tons.
- 3.8 tons of heroin were seized in 2020 in India, the fifth-highest in the world.
- National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India 2020 report, a total of 59,806 cases were lodged under NDPS Act.
Various treaties
- United Nations (UN) Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961)
- UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971)
- UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988)
- UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) 2000
Previous Year Question (PYQ)
India’s proximity to the 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? (2018)
Daily Current Affairs : Click Here
Also Read :