In the last five years, India has witnessed an exponential increase in the seizure of Heroin from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021 which is approximately 300 percent increase, said Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Director-General SN Pradhan on Tuesday.
The NCB chief made the announcement while inaugurating a ‘Darkathon 2022’- a three-phased event that will conclude on April 22.
The event is aimed at finding out solutions to counter drug trafficking through the darknet. Stressing upon this fact by highlighting the UNODC World Drug Report 2021 which says that 94 percent of the sales in darknet markets are related to drugs. Pradhan mentioned the changing drug trafficking and abuse scenario.
The NCB Director General informed that “there has been a rise in drug trafficking through maritime route and Darknet”. Further said that the “effective enforcement activities have resulted in the enhanced seizures of all major drugs in the recent years”.
“In the last five years, India has witnessed an exponential increase in the seizure of Heroin from 2,146 kg in 2017 to 7,282 kg in 2021 which is approximately 300 percent increase. Similarly, there is an increase of 172 percent in the seizure of Opium. 191 percent increase in the seizure of. Cannabis (from 3,52,539 kg in 2017 to 6,75,631 kg in 2021),” said Pradhan while inaugurating ‘Darkathon 2022’.
The event started today and it will be concluding on April 22 to find solutions to counter drug trafficking through the darknet.
Acting on these instructions, the NCB is organizing the hackathon named ‘Darkathon 2022’.
Pradhan inaugurated the ‘Darkathon 2022’ at the auditorium of Central Water Commission (CWC) in RK Puram, New Delhi in the presence of special guests Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Rajesh Pant, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Government of India.
The problem started in the Darkathon 2022 is crawling off the dark web to identify and catalog active and genuine darknet markets selling drugs. Crawling of darknet markets to identify drug traffickers on the darknet based in India. The drugs they offer for sale and digital footprinting of active drug traffickers on darknet based in India.
The registration for Darkathon-2022 started from Tuesday soon after its inauguration and it shall close on March 31 followed by evaluation. Shortlisting of teams and participants between April 14 to April 16.
The NCB chief has appealed to everyone, particularly students. But technical experts to participate in the ‘Darkathon 2022’ to test their skills. Also to help the country in finding a solution for the challenges that emerged due to misuse of technology.
Cybercrimes have permeated almost every facet of society and are growing in volume, velocity, and sophistication with each passing day. Posing challenges to the best efforts of law enforcement agencies in India and across the world.
The anonymity offered by the dark web has drawn criminals in all garbs to flock to it for aiding and abetting their crimes. Darknet markets offer illegal substances. Also, services to people have emerged as one of the major challenges to law enforcement across the globe. Drugs are the most widely offered illegal substance in all of the darknet markets.
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