The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has named Telegram the most prominent encrypted messaging service used to advertise illegal drugs, according to its Annual Report 2025, as reported by Inc42. Union Home Minister Amit Shah released the report on June 26 at the 10th apex-level meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD), according to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) press release.
The finding marks the second time in under a month that a government body has built its argument against Telegram around the platform’s architecture. It comes days after the Delhi High Court (HC) upheld the Centre’s temporary block on Telegram over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.
Why the NCB singled out Telegram: The report flagged Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal as significant channels for drug distribution, but singled out Telegram for its public channels and ease of access. Traffickers use these channels to post product listings, pricing and delivery details, reaching a wider audience than darknet markets allow.
The enforcement gap the NCB admits: Messaging apps work on any smartphone and lower entry barriers, unlike darknet markets, which require specialised access, the report said, according to Inc42. The NCB listed the following obstacles to enforcement:
- Jurisdictional hurdles in securing platform cooperation.
- Auto-deletion of messages.
- Use of multiple accounts and layered communication.
- Cryptocurrency payments that maintain anonymity.
The crypto shift: Traffickers are moving away from Bitcoin towards privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero and Zcash, alongside decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols, making transactions harder to trace, the report said, according to Inc42. The NCB also described darknet marketplaces as operating like e-commerce platforms for illegal drugs.
The same architecture argument, a second time: While arguing in favour of the NEET-UG block before the Delhi High Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta relied on Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) reports from 2024, 2025 and 2026 to argue that Telegram’s design is uniquely resistant to enforcement, MediaNama reported. The Centre cited the following features:
- A single account’s ability to create 40 bots, compared with one per user on WhatsApp.
- Mirror bots that reappear within minutes under new names.
- Username-based communication that conceals user identities.
- Cloud-based storage that syncs and deletes user data.
- Public channels with up to 2 lakh members.
The Centre made this case about exam fraud. The NCB is now making a similar case about drug trafficking.
The block already set a precedent. The Delhi HC upheld the Centre’s order, holding that the platform can be restricted under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Justice Tejas Karia told Telegram that the dispute turned on the “sufficiency” of its actions, not whether it acted at all, and that “Section 69A power is always available”…
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