Correspondent
PASIGHAT, Jul 8: Stating that several drug-addict youths in East Siang district have established a network with interstate drug peddlers, NGO Women Against Social Evils (WASE) has sought assistance from the village defence party (VDP) of Leku, bordering Assam, to curb the menace.
A seven-member WASE team headed by its general secretary Joya Tasung-Moyong on Saturday held a meeting with the VDP to discuss measures to check the prevalence of the menace at the Assam-Arunachal boundary area.
The WASE activists said a large number of youths, including teenage girls, in Pasighat and Ruksin have become addicted to drugs supplied by peddlers.
Reportedly, some drug addicts from Pasighat and Ngorlung (Ruksin) are found frequently visiting the Leku-Jelom area bordering Assam, where they take drugs with their companions.
Locals allege that the illicit trade is taking place right under the nose of the Arunachal and Assam police.
The police of both the states have so far arrested more than 20 people involved in drug trafficking from Ruksin, Pasighat, Mebo and Jonai (Assam) in the last five years, and seized huge quantities of opium, marijuana, brown sugar, and banned psychotropic drugs.
