Database to bust LSD?

A 35-year-old Greek, carrying LSD worth Rs 15 lakh, was arrested recently using database input

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A four-month effort on the part of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police to keep track of habitual LSD users in the capital has resulted in a database on drug consumers.

The database, which was created by tracking the call detail records of known users and other intelligence inputs, has over 500 names on it. All consumers on the list are either university students or call centre employees.

Police said the database will be helpful in tracking and identifying suppliers of drugs in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

The data was recently used to arrest a 35-year-old Greek who was carrying LSD worth Rs 15 lakh — the first seizure of the drug in the capital in the last eight years.

“We identified habitual consumers through our intelligence, then put their phone numbers on surveillance. We then accessed their call detail records. We isolated patterns in their CDRs and identified the numbers they were frequently in touch with. Those numbers were then put on surveillance and most of them were found to belong to drug suppliers. This is how we identified the Greek drug supplier and arrested him,” a police officer said.

Apart from the LSD, police also recovered passes to a rave party scheduled to be held in Kasol in Himachal Pradesh from the Greek, police said.

Police said they started thinking about developing a database to track drug suppliers after the death of 20-year-old NRI Anmol Sarna last year.

Sarna had died in Southeast Delhi’s Kalkaji area in September last year hours after taking part in  party in which LSD was reportedly consumed, police said.

“After Sarna’s death, we started concentrating on the LSD racket in the capital. We found that LSD was being widely used as a party drug in metropolitan cities,” the officer said.

Sources revealed that the database has also helped them identify the route through which the drug reaches Delhi.

“The CDRs of these suppliers helped us trace their movement and their contacts in other states. It was found that the supplier gets LSD from Europe and takes it to Kasol in Himachal Pradesh.
There he exchanges LSD for good quality plant-based drugs such as marijuana and hashish. They call this a ‘barter’ system. The hash and weed are then sent to Europe. The LSD, meanwhile, is brought to Delhi from Kasol,” the officer said.

The LSD is smuggled into the country in the form of stamps and sheets. It is difficult to detect as it is odourless and looks like a a piece of butter paper soaked in chemical. A stamp of LSD costs nearly Rs 10,000, police said.