Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging stronger interstate coordination against narcotics trafficking and proposing a special conference of the Home Ministers of all States and Union Territories, according to reports of the letter published by The Times of Bengal, KBD News and PeopleTalky.
In the letter, Chennithala proposed a time-bound interstate operational protocol under the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD), with round-the-clock nodal officers in every State and Union Territory, faster real-time intelligence sharing, and coordinated investigation of the financial networks behind drug trafficking. "Following the money must become an integral part of following the drug," he said in the letter.
The proposals draw on Keralam's Operation Toofan, the statewide anti-narcotics mission launched on 2 June 2026. As stated in the letter, Keralam Police have registered 13,357 cases and arrested 14,409 persons in 140 days under the operation, seizing more than 27 kg of drugs and 1,796 kg of illicit substance — yaani about 1.8 tonnes.
Chennithala said investigations that began with seizures inside Keralam repeatedly led police across State boundaries. A seizure of 97 grams at Manjeri led Malappuram Police to a storage point in Coimbatore, where about 13 kg of illicit substance intended for Keralam was recovered, and the trail then ran through Delhi, Noida, Kolkata, Bihar and Chennai. In another case, a seizure of 609 grams at Angamaly led Ernakulam Rural Police to a key supplier in Nagaon, Assam, with further arrests in Delhi and Bengaluru.
"When an investigation crosses a state boundary, the pursuing team should be able to secure necessary coordination and local assistance within hours rather than days," Chennithala said, adding that much of the present coordination still depends on case-by-case arrangements.
The letter also called for a structured review of legal and procedural challenges under the NDPS framework — including alleged splitting of consignments to stay below commercial-quantity thresholds, delays in forensic examination and the emergence of synthetic substances — and for coordinated work by State Police, the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Enforcement Directorate and FIU-IND on hawala channels, mule accounts and digital-payment trails.
Keralam has offered to host the proposed Home Ministers' conference, which would focus on interstate narcotics trafficking and implementation of the Vision Document on Drug Control (2026-2029) released by Amit Shah at the 10th Apex-Level NCORD meeting. Chennithala has also sought a meeting with the Union Home Minister to discuss the proposals. No response from the Union Home Ministry was reported in the accounts of the letter.