30 Minutes: Drug den Goa, a dose of reality

The body of British teenager Scarlette Keeling was found on Goa’s Anjuna beach two months ago. But after all the promises of a crackdown on drugs made by the Goa government and police, a CNN-IBN special investigation finds nothing really has changed.

The team went undercover and got on camera peddlers at work, shack owners confessing to things being no different than the day the tragedy took place, policemen who have run out of ideas, and politicians who play to the galleries but strangely are not becoming agents of change

So, what lies beyond these images of lazy sunbathing tourists? A CNN-IBN Special Investigation found Anjuna remains Goa's drug-den.

At Ingo's night market at Parra, everyone points to Anjuna as being the state’s drug den.”You can get it at Anjuna,” said a shopkeeper.

Our decoy, a French lady, reaches Anjuna beach. Goa beaches are crawling with drug traffickers.

If you are a foreigner, sooner or later, peddlers will approach you with drugs. Among the many shops, bars and shacks, we choose Roy's Palace.

The owner approaches.

Peddler: Hi.

CNN-IBN: Hello.

Peddler: How are you ?

CNN-IBN: Fine...and you ?

He reveals he can supply the team drugs. A deal is struck for 10 grams of hashish.

“You can go ask the Kashmiri there, he will say 2,500. You go and ask right now. You come with me. I'll go further, you ask him - 'do you have some stuff'. He will say, yes, 2500,” the peddler says.

He also lets us know harder drugs are available. Pointing to a girl, he says, “That girl sitting there, she just took cocaine.”

The next day, the SIT gives him a shopping list.

Peddler: LSD, cocaine, what do you want?

CNN-IBN: Just give me the prices.

Peddler: Two minutes, just give me 2 minutes

CNN-IBN: Ok.

Minutes later, he returns with the price list.

Peddler: Eight and five, (Rs) 800 each for Ecstasy and (Rs) 500 for LSD.

CNN-IBN: And cocaine you said was 3.5?

But this peddler was at the bottom of the drug supply chain. So SIT decided to move up the ladder.

Outside Paradiso, a popular nightclub in Anjuna, the team was told to meet a dealer named Daniel.

CNN-IBN: You have ecstasy ?

Daniel: Ya ! Ecstasy, cocaine, MDMA, LSD.

CNN-IBN: How much is it ?

Daniel: (Rs) 500

CNN-IBN: For one tablet ?

Daniel: For one tablet.

CNN-IBN: Cocaine, how much ?

Daniel: (Rs) 3,500.

After locating Daniel, CNN-INB correspondent poses as a tourist from Mumbai, looking for some “fun”. Keen to hook a buyer, Daniel meets again at nearby Vagator.

Daniel: What do you want?

CNN-IBN: I want some hash and some acid.

Daniel: Paper? Yeah paper.

CNN-IBN: You have stars ?

Daniel: No, Om Shiva.

CNN-IBN: What is Om Shiva ?

Daniel: Paper.

Om Shiva or LSD, a hallucinogenic drug popular on the rave party circuit, is sold on pieces of blotting paper.

CNN-IBN: Paper, ok. How much is hash for?

Daniel: Hash is (Rs) 1,200. Afghani is very good. It's like a cocaine power.

CNN-IBN: You have coke also? How much is coke for?

Daniel: (Rs) 3,800.

CNN-IBN: For 1 gm?

Daniel: Ya, 1 gm.

CNN-IBN: MDMA, Ecstasy?

Daniel: Ya. Ecstasy, MDMA, but crystal MDMA also.

CNN-IBN: Crystal ?

Daniel: They put water and drink.

CNN-IBN: How much is that for ?

Daniel: Rs 2,500.

Ecstasy or MDMA are known as ‘date rape' drugs. The police claim Scarlette too was given Ecstasy before being raped.

It’s easy for a tourist to get drugs in Goa. And everyone in coastal Goa knows and admits to it - politicians, police and the people.

State Tourism Minister, Mickey Pachecho says, “See, I notice also such places where drugs are transacted on a frequent basis. I have also brought it to the notice of the home minister and chief minister also.”

“There is no denying of the fact that drugs are there. This itself is evident from the fact that the Goan police is conducting raids and seizing drugs,” says IGP, Kishan Kumar.

ANCs are roaming about with drugs. What are you talking about?” says former Anjuna Sarpanch, Savio Almeida.

Shack owner Francis says, “I don’t like these boys who do drugs. You see they were born here.”

It was Scarlette's death that brought Goa sharply into international media focus.

Scarlette's highly bruised body was first dismissed by the police as an accidental death, fuelled by alcohol overdose.

But with the media backing her mother Fiona, a second post-mortem was done, revealing she had been drugged, assaulted, and murdered.

CNN-IBN aired an interview of a forensic doctor [Read the story] explaining how the cops had bungled the case. The investigating officer and the doctor were suspended, the case was passed to the CBI.

But once the tide of hype abated, the drug traffickers were back. Even as the cops promised to bust the trade.

Who are the faces behind this narcotics trade? What are their names? Everyone talks about the drug mafia but nobody is prepared to expose it. The answers depend on who you ask.

“I cannot say,” says IGP Kishan Kumar.

The police and senior politicians don't have a straight answer. But Agnelo Fernandes, the Congress MLA from Calangute in North Goa's drug affected stretch was frank.

“I informed Goa Legislative Assembly that there are foreign gangs selling drugs here. Basically drug mafia. I even now think that the Russian mafia is controlling, Vagatore - Israelis, Anjuna - there is a local mafia, Calangute, Baga - Scottish, and Candolim side, there are Kenyans,” he says.

Mini Russia is what locals call Morjim, in North Goa. Some of those operating out of here are: Alexander Mamedov and Kiril Morozov, who set up businesses in Goa though they only had tourist visas; Valiulin Rashid is said to be part of the mafia; Leonid Beyzer was charged in Russia for cocaine possession; Sergey Ivanov is being investigated in Russia for bank fraud, have all bought land in Goa flouting the law.

“I feel foreigners should abide by our rules,” says a Goan.

The Goa government admits that almost 500 properties illegally purchased by foreigners in Goa are under Investigation, a total of 12 lakh square metres of land.

Much of it allegedly funded by drug money.

“Government has taken a policy decision to ban foreigners from buying land in Goa. This is a very big decision taken by Goa Govt. Necessary amendments will be done in the existing act,” says Goa’s Law Minister, Dayanand Narvekar.

The police accept the drug trade is getting organised, especially in North Goa, but plays down the scale of the problem.

“One thing is clear. About the coastal belt, specially Arambol, Morgim, Anjuna, there is credible information. All our seizures have been mainly from this belt,” says IGP Kishan Kumar.

A local shack owner confirmed on hidden camera that all kinds of drugs are available along the coast.

“I knew grass and charas and now so many drugs have come here. That day (Scarlette’s death case) it came in the paper that tablet, and what do you call that strip,” Francis says.

CNN-IBN: Paper?

Francis: Ya that paper, this was not there before.

And yet, those who can change things, do nothing but pass the buck.

Says SP North Goa, Bosco George, “Police have always put their foot down to put proposals before the government regarding certain things that we never wanted. But it was at the government level that they felt it would affect tourism. Because of various organisations, like the tourism organisation, the hotel industry, they felt it would affect tourism.”

Goa Tourism Minister Mickey Pacheco remains defensive. “Well, the tourism department doesn't have such kind of access of going through the beaches and find out the places who does and what but that will be handle by the home department of course police authority.”

And so does Anjuna MLA Dayanand Mandrekar, “Dekho main koi police officer nahi hoon kisi ke kaam me interfere kar nahi sakta hoon. yahan ka representative hone ke naate mera kaam hai ki yeh mudda Chief Minister ke yahan pahuche (I am not a police officer. As a representative of this area, mu job is to ensure the issue reaches the Chief Minister.)

(With inputs from Pramod Acharya)