Turf wars tarnish Goa's paradise image

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/07/goa-india-drugs-trade-gangs

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The tourist sipping a beer had been in Goa just a few hours before a man sidled up to him and asked if he wanted to buy drugs. "I heard the waves, my toes dug into the sand, and my weekend holiday had just begun," said Pablo Rosa, 48, from Texas. "Even before I got my feet wet in the water, I was offered drugs. That's how easy and open it is here."

Over the past three decades, the tiny western Indian state of Goa has become a popular destination for Indians and foreigners alike, offering sun, sand, dance music festivals and businesses bearing names such as Karmic Cafe, Buddha Tattoo and Nirvana Bar. But the sun-seekers' haven is rapidly acquiring a darker reputation – as a hub for international drug trafficking and tourists chasing a high.

A few months ago the shadowy subculture of the area dubbed India's "cocaine coast" by the media was exposed when violence spilled on to the streets. After a Nigerian man was killed in a turf war between rival drug gangs, more than 150 Nigerians dragged his body from a police hearse, attacked the officers and blocked the national highway.

The protest sparked an anti-Nigerian backlash among locals, part of a growing uneasiness about the Africans' presence, which some observers say reflects a wider trend of racism in India. Banners bearing slogans such as "Say No to Nigerians, Say No to Drugs" hung in the streets. Many said they would not rent rooms, motorcycles or scooters to Nigerians. One Goa politician said Nigerians were like "cancer"; another likened them to wild animals.

"Soon every Goa street will be ruled by drug gangs and their political cahoots," read the headline of a column in a newspaper called the Goan.

"People in Goa are reacting in a mixed and confused manner to all the changes tourism has brought," said Frederick Noronha, who runs a non-fiction publishing house called Goa 1556.

The tension was exacerbated when the government ordered the arrest and deportation of all Nigerians without valid documents, triggering a diplomatic furore. Thirty-four of the 52 Nigerians arrested in the highway protest lacked valid papers, according to a state immigration official.

"Indian people do not like us, some clubs say they do not want to serve us and now these calls for boycotts against us," said Joe Prince, a 31-year-old Nigerian businessman who said he had not stepped out of his home in a village in Goa since the killing. "We have silently suffered insults for years, but now it is out in public. Indians look at us and think 'black' and 'drug peddlers'."

The turmoil has shaken Goa's easygoing cosmopolitan culture, which has drawn hippies from abroad since the 60s. Many locals are debating whether the region has paid too high a price for tourism.

"What we are seeing now is what we have known for years. The situation did not develop overnight," said Dattesh Parulekar, an assistant professor of international relations at Goa University. "So many foreigners have come here and set up local businesses, beach shacks and hotels, run the drug trade and bought up huge tracts of land. The local people have watched helplessly as their area changed, but they are also unable to extricate themselves from the profit that tourism brings."

For many in Goa, a former Portuguese colony, the gang fighting comes as a warning to clean up the tourist trade, which attracted more than 2.7 million visitors in 2012. Worried residents say some of them are the wrong kind of visitor.

"We know what goes on in the name of tourism here – drugs and flesh trade," said Vasudev Arlekar, president of the local taxi-owners association. "India's tourism slogan is 'Guest is God.' But how can we worship guests who are doing all this nonsense?"

Goa's narcotics trade is worth about $950m a year, police say, and includes marijuana, heroin, cocaine, meth, ecstasy and synthetic drugs.

For a long period, drug trafficking in Goa was controlled by gangs run by Britons, Israelis, Russians and Indians, who maintained an uneasy peace by operating on different beaches, police said. But in the past four years, Nigerians have infiltrated the trade, with scant regard for others' turf.

"The Nigerians have entered in large numbers and will sell to anybody and everybody – on the beach, outside clubs and on the streets," said Kartik Kashyap, superintendent of the police anti-narcotics unit. "That is why the public perception about them is negative."

Police said that 189 Nigerians have been arrested in Goa since 2010, on charges including lack of travel documents and involvement in drug trafficking. About 40% of the foreigners arrested for drug trafficking in the state since 2009 are Nigerians.

Just two weeks before the killing, Goa's police busted two major drug rackets, seizing more than 4kg of amphetamines from a British drug dealer and more than 450g of cocaine from two Nigerians.

Police say they have recovered more drugs in 2013 than in the past four years combined. The drug gang wars are "a manifestation of the rot that has set in", Kashyap said. "These activities cannot be divided among groups peacefully for long. If these gangs are not controlled now, things might turn horribly bad in future."

But the drug-tourism trade has grown deep tentacles. A recent Goa legislative assembly report detailed the nexus among politicians, police officers and the drug lords. "How can the government tackle the menace when such powerful people are protecting and profiting from it?" said Mickky Pacheco, a lawmaker who recently chaired a lower house committee reporting on drugs.

Many in Goa worry the wave of negative publicity will tarnish Goa permanently. The state is no longer among the top 10 Indian states that attract foreign tourists, according to the national government.

Monika Burnier, a Swiss travel agent, said she discovered "paradise" in Goa 20 years ago and began to bring in new European visitors. "Over the years, the chartered flights with tourists from Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Holland have stopped," Burnier said. "Look at what Goa has become now. Do you blame them?"

<em>This article appeared in </em>Guardian Weekly<em>, which incorporates material from the Washington Post</em>

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