Smugglers’ questioning leads to 15 drug addicts

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 20

The arrest of three drug smugglers by the Zone 1 police has led to identification of 15 drug addicts who had been buying drugs from them. The drug addicts were taken to the drug de-addiction centre at Civil Hospital for treatment. These three smugglers were nabbed by separate police stations.

The ADCP 1, Gurpreet Singh Sikand, said the Division 2 police had nabbed a smuggler, identified as Gurpal Singh, of Amarpura, and recovered 10 gram of heroin from his possession. He was already facing three cases of drug smuggling and had come out of jail on bail about a year ago.

The ADCP said the Division 3 police also nabbed a smuggler, Munish Garg, of Madhopuri, and recovered 24 gram of heroin from his possession.

The Division 4 police had nabbed a smuggler, identified as Rajiv Dhir, of Janakpuri, and recovered 12 gram of heroin from his possession.

The ADCP said when the smugglers were interrogated, they revealed the names of their clients who had been buying drugs from them. “Accordingly, we identified 15 drug addicts who had been buying drugs from these smugglers for a long time. We rounded up all drug addicts and they were taken to the drug de-addiction centre for treatment. Most of the drug addicts also vowed to shun drugs and expressed that they wanted to come to the mainstream society to live a drug-free life. We will also do a follow-up to find if the drugs addicts are regularly getting treatment or not,” said Sikand.