Preetu Nair | TNNPanaji: As theories of a drug and sex ring contributing to the death of
British teen Scarlette Keeling gained ground, the Goa police on
Wednesday went back on their first assumption of death due to drowning
and promised a fresh probe.
North Goa SP Bosco George said: “We are
connecting the missing links to solve the case. We will be basing our
final report on the second autopsy report.” Doctors conducted the
second autopsy on Tuesday evening.
Keeling’s mother Fiona McKeown
had refused to take back the body of the 15-year-old, found dead on the
Anjuna beach on February 18, if the government did not conduct a second
autopsy. With the case receiving national attention, CM Digambar Kamat
promised to personally look into the matter.
Scarlette used to be
seen around Anjuna with a duo believed to be linked to the thriving
drugs network. Local people say she was introduced to drugs by the
local dealers and once she got hooked, they forced her to pay in kind
for her daily fix.
Investigations reveal that just like Scarlette,
European girls from working class backgrounds are often lured into the
world of drugs in coastal Goa. The modus operandi is to befriend minor
girls from poor European homes at trance parties and introduce them to
drugs. They pretend to be a friend, who provide food, shelter and
money, and the drugs. Once hooked, the girls are not only sexually
abused but used for “outsourcing” synthetic drugs abroad.
“Drugs
like LSD, cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy are expensive and these girls don’t
have money to pay. Once they are addicted, they are willing to do
anything,” informed a rave party organizer in Anjuna. At present, one
gram of MDMA has a street value here at Rs 2,500, cocaine costs nearly
Rs 4,500, ecstasy tablets cost Rs 800 and LSD sells for Rs 400.

Drug abuse is so high that tourists have often been hospitalized due to
overdose or consumption of adulterated drugs. Some lose their lives,
like Japanese Urano Asaki and Keigo Yashiki, who died of drug abuse
last Monday. “In the last tourist season, we treated 37 foreigners who
collapsed due to overdose or contaminated drugs. This year the figure
has already touched 53,” said Dr Jawaharlal Henriques, who runs a drug
rehabilitation centre in Anjuna.

However, Home Minister Ravi
Naik stated that there is hardly any drug abuse in Goa and everything
is under control. “We have a special Anti Narcotic Cell which looks
into this issue and everything is under control. I don’t even know from
where Scarlette used to get the drugs,” added Naik.

March 6, 2008 , The Times of India , Times Nation, Page 15