The city police are tapping social media to plug the sale of drug points in and around the city, which according to a senior police officer, is the root cause for increasing incidence of robbery and chain-snatching incidents.
Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P. Harishekaran on Wednesday tweeted on a social website that consumption of marijuana by the youth is leading them to commit offences such as robbery.
Drugs
Analysing the pattern and the cause of robberies after questioning habitual offenders has revealed that over 90 per cent of the muggers operating in the city are drug addicts and commit the offence to make quick money to buy drugs.
A gang of chain-snatchers, who were nabbed recently by the southeast division police, revealed that they are chronic alcoholics and drug addicts. They commit crime on a regular basis to get their daily dose of drugs.
So, police held a series of meetings with the pawn brokers and jewellers and asked them not to entertain suspicious persons. Besides that, the jurisdictional police stepped up vigil to identify the drug-selling points, Mr. Harishekaran added.
Money
While the police believe that they have succeeded in plugging the source of money from pawn brokers, the offenders have now resorted to another way of getting the drugs they want by handing over the booty to drug seller, police said.
He added that in order to counter them we have devised a way to tap the source of drugs that is the root cause of unabated robberies in the city.
“Using the available information in the police records, we have taken action against drug peddlers. But, there are many points that are still active and people could help us by giving information about such drug selling points so that we can contain the menace”, Mr. Harishekaran added.
Apart from this, the police are also in touch with informants and various agencies dealing with drug addicts, and seeking information from them.
We are also cultivating sources from various section of society who could help us in fighting this crime, he said.
Published - August 28, 2015 12:00 am IST
