Cocaine drug prices increased worldwide: Cyberabad cops

Hyderabad: Hyderabad: Shortage of cocaine in the international markets has spiked its price to around Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 a gram, said the police, said the top cop from the Cyberabad police here on Saturday.
The Cyberabad police arrested four people including a Nigerian who are part of a drug cartel linked to Goa and seized 303 grams of cocaine from them on Saturday. Stephen Raveendra, Cyberabad commissioner of police told reporters that the gang was selling the drug for anything between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 a gram after bringing it from Goa.
Prices of cocaine in the international market have reportedly shot up due to a shortage of the drug in view of a worldwide crackdown on the cocaine and heroin smuggling. “Synthetic drugs are available at low price because they are produced locally. Cocaine is smuggled into the country from far-off countries and due to stringent action at all levels its price significantly increased,” said Stephen Raveendra.
Users from the affluent class use cocaine in small quantities, cops said.
According to anti-narcotic agencies in the city, Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Alto Rio Negro Territory in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru, even in areas where its cultivation is unlawful.
There are some reports that the plant is being cultivated in the south of Mexico as an alternative to smuggling its recreational product cocaine. It also plays a role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.