New Delhi: Amit Shah on Friday issued a strong warning over the growing global narcotics crisis, calling for urgent international cooperation to dismantle drug cartels and prevent what he described as irreversible damage within the next decade.
Speaking at the RN Kao Memorial Lecture 2026 in New Delhi, Shah said the fight against drugs could no longer be treated as an isolated law enforcement issue and must instead be addressed as a major global security challenge linked to terrorism, organised crime and geopolitical instability.
Addressing diplomats, security officials and representatives from over 40 countries, Shah stressed that fragmented approaches would fail against highly organised international narcotics syndicates operating across borders. He urged nations to work together on a binding legal framework that would ensure uniform definitions of banned substances, common penalties for trafficking offences, smoother extradition processes and real-time intelligence sharing.
The Home Minister said inconsistencies in international drug laws were allowing criminal networks to exploit loopholes and expand operations. According to Shah, without coordinated global action, the consequences would become far more difficult to reverse in the coming years.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a Drug-Free India by 2047, Shah said Indian agencies had already prepared a roadmap to break drug syndicates and strengthen border enforcement under a strict zero-tolerance policy.
He declared that India would not allow even a single gram of narcotics to enter the country or be routed through its territory. Shah also highlighted India’s recent success in bringing back more than 40 transnational criminals with the help of partner nations, while acknowledging that stronger international coordination remained necessary.
During his address, Shah linked narcotics trafficking directly to terror financing and the rise of parallel criminal economies. He warned against the emergence of “narco-states” that could destabilise regions and weaken governments.
Calling for collective global resolve, Shah said the battle against drugs must rise above political differences and become a shared international mission focused on intelligence cooperation, coordinated operations and long-term prevention strategies.
