Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 01 September 2025
In a startling discovery, police at Hut Bay recovered over 1.1 kilograms of suspected cocaine/methaqualone that had been deliberately concealed in the jungle near Chuttan Beach, opposite the Naval Gate, Little Andaman on August 30th, 2025.
According to the First Information Report (FIR No. 54/2025), Inspector Pritam Behari, SHO of Hut Bay Police Station, acted on credible information from a reliable source that an illegal substance had been hidden in the Chuttan Beach area by unknown persons. On receiving the input, the SHO informed SDPO Swaraj Dweep, Mr. Firoj Alam, and a special search team was immediately constituted.
Accompanied by Tehsildar Ajoy Mandal as Executive Magistrate and two local residents as independent witnesses, the police team launched an intensive search of the thick undergrowth. Around 12:45 pm, they recovered two suspicious packets hidden among the bushes:
- A transparent packet wrapped in cello tape containing 908 grams of cocaine/methaqualone.
- A silver-foil packet containing 198 grams of the same substance.
The substance tested positive using a drug detection kit. Both packets, weighing a total of 1.106 kilograms, were seized and sealed at the spot before being deposited at Hut Bay Police Station. A case under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act, 1985 has been registered against unknown persons.
While this seizure points to a case of drugs being deliberately hidden for retrieval, it adds to the troubling pattern of narcotics turning up across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In recent years, packets of methamphetamine, heroin, and other narcotics have been found abandoned on different island shores, sparking concern over the region being used as a transit hub by international cartels.
The archipelago’s strategic location along global shipping routes makes it vulnerable to such activities.
The Chuttan Beach discovery highlights a worrying trend — that narcotics are not just drifting ashore but are also being stashed inland, deliberately hidden in secluded areas. Such recoveries pose not only a law-and-order challenge but also a serious risk to locals who may unknowingly come across these dangerous substances.
This revelation underscores the need for enhanced coastal surveillance, tighter inter-agency coordination, and increased vigilance in vulnerable areas of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
