Gandhinagar, June 26 (IANS) Gujarat Police has prevented narcotic substances worth more than Rs 13,600 crore from reaching users in Gujarat and other parts of India over the past five years, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi said on Friday as the state marked the ‘International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’.

In a statement on social media platform on X, Sanghavi said Gujarat Police had registered more than 3,700 cases under anti-narcotics laws during the five-year period and arrested 5,346 people allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.

He said sustained enforcement had made traffickers reluctant to use Gujarat as a transit route for smuggling narcotics to other states.

“Today, drug traffickers fear using Gujarat as a route to transport narcotics to other states,” Sanghavi said, adding that the seizures had prevented drugs from reaching young people in Gujarat and elsewhere in the country.

According to official figures, police have seized more than 1.36 lakh kilograms of narcotic substances during the period.

The number of registered narcotics cases has also risen, from 315 in 2020 to 584 in the first five months of 2026, which officials attribute to increased enforcement and surveillance rather than a confirmed rise in drug activity.

Sanghavi highlighted several measures introduced by the state government to strengthen anti-drug enforcement.

“Gujarat is the first state to implement a ‘Drug Reward Policy’ that provides financial incentives to police personnel and informants whose Intelligence leads to the exposure of drug trafficking networks,” he said.

He also referred to an ‘out-of-turn promotion policy’ for police personnel who risk their lives while dismantling international drug syndicates.

The state has additionally established a dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Force, authorised local police stations to investigate cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, and introduced an Artificial Intelligence-based analytical platform known as ‘NARIT’ to assist investigators in identifying criminal networks through financial, digital and communication data.

Anti-narcotics cells are also being planned across districts, while de-addiction and counselling services have been expanded alongside enforcement measures.

Observed every year on June 26, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking was established by the United Nations General Assembly to promote international cooperation in preventing drug abuse and combating illicit drug trafficking.

–IANS

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