Three arrested with 1-quintal poppy husk

Ludhiana: The police busted an interstate drug peddling gang and seized one quintal poppy husk from two trucks in separate incidents on Thursday. The arrested drug peddlers have been identified as Amanjot Singh (25) of Deharka in Jagraon, Ravinder Singh (19) of Kapure village and Mandeep Singh (38) of Jalalabad village in Moga district. Amanjot is a diploma holder in civil engineering. In a statement, Commissioner of Police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said on a tip-off, the police laid a trap on the Bilga road where a CIA Staff-I team stopped an Ashok Leyland truck, bearing registration number PB03-BF-9151, and arrested Ravinder Singh and Mandeep Singh after seizing 40 kg of poppy husk hidden in the tool box of the vehicle. A case under the NDPS Act was registered against them at the Sahnewal police station. Bhullar added that another CIA Staff-I team stopped a truck bearing the registration number (PB-10DS-1792) being driven by Amanjot Singh. The team seized 60 kg of poppy husk hidden in the tool box of the truck. A case was registered at the Sahnewal police station. Amanjot is also owner of the truck. The CP said Mandeep has been a driver for the last 15 years and had purchased Ashok Leyland truck three years ago. Ravinder is his cousin. He said Mandeep and Amanjot used to bring poppy husk from Jharkhand. They were selling the contraband at Rs 4,500 per kg here by purchasing it at Rs 2,200 per kg from Jharkhand. TNS