Goa sleeps on explosive drug nexus report

Panaji, Dec 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have expressed his outrage against growing drug addiction among India's youth, but the BJP-led coalition government in Goa may have just missed his cue. Despite Modi's implorations on his weekly radio programme 'Mann ki Baat' to root out the terror-funding drug mafia, the state government continues to sit on an explosive legislative committee report that nails Goa's police-politician-drug mafia nexus. The report, tabled by the head of the legislative probe committee Francisco Pacheco in 2013, describes a former police officer as an alleged "kingpin" in the nexus and links the son of a former home minister to foreigners and locals allegedly involved in drug peddling in coastal Goa. The former minister's son, the report says, was referred to as "Boss" by Atala, an alleged Israeli drug dealer who had been arrested in connection with drug trade and is currently on bail. Both the minister and his son have denied the findings of the report.