‘Out-of-State’ drug peddlers arrested in 2025 come down from 2024

Busting popular perception that drug peddling in Karnataka, particularly in Bengaluru, is dominated by those from outside the State, including foreign nationals, data shows that the number of “out-of-State” persons arrested for peddling drugs has drastically come down from 2024 to 2025, even as the number of narcotics cases increased significantly.

The number of “out-of-State” persons arrested for peddling drugs in 2024 was 235 in the State, with 135 of them arrested in Bengaluru alone. This came down marginally to 226, of which 125 were in Bengaluru in 2025. However, during the same time, the total number of narcotic cases jumped from 4,158 in 2024 to 5,834 in 2025 in the State and more than doubled from 520 to 1,057 in Bengaluru during the same period.

Nearly 25% of peddlers arrested in the city in 2024 were “out-of-State” persons, down to less than 12% in 2025, data presented by Home Minister G. Parameshwara, in the Karnataka State Legislature, showed.

A senior official, with experience in anti narcotic investigations, said that the perception that “outsiders” dominate the drug trade is a misnomer. “Though most of the ganja coming into the city is from the Telangana and Odisha border, most of the peddlers and consumers are locals, barring a small section of migrant labourers. Hydroganja is coming from Thailand through mules and the entire operation is dominated by locals. It is again the locals who order narcotics online through the dark web and get it delivered through clandestine couriers,” he said.

Focus shift needed

However, it is true that foreign nationals and “out-of-State” persons are involved in the trade of synthetic drugs and of late manufacturing them in clandestine labs, the officer added. “MDMA, ecstasy, and LSD are often supplied to Bengaluru from outside the State. Many African nationals are also involved in these cases. There was a phase when there was a mushrooming of such labs around Delhi, from where these synthetic drugs were brought to the city. Several of them have been busted now,” the officer said.

Another officer said that following police crackdown on such labs around Delhi, they seemed to have shifted operations to other parts of the country, including Karnataka, and it was time the State police shifted their focus to these operations.

It can be recalled that over the past one year, the Maharashtra police and Narcotics Control Bureau have claimed to have busted such clandestine labs in Mysuru and Bengaluru in three cases, all run by those hailing from North Indian States.

One of the criticisms of anti-narcotic operations of the State police has also been that they mostly target consumers and peddlers low in the chain and do not go up the chain. For instance, the State police have not arrested a single synthetic drug producer in the past two years, data showed.

The data on cases against “out-of-State” peddlers in narcotic cases coming down, even as other agencies have busted multiple labs run by them manufacturing narcotics in the State, also indicates the need for a shift in focus by the State police.