Punjab Police, BSF bust drug smuggling racket; arrest 7 members

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Fazilka, May 26

In a major breakthrough against trans-border narcotic smuggling networks, Fazilka Police in a joint operation with Border Security Force (BSF) have busted an international narco smuggling module.

They have arrested seven drug smugglers and recovered 5.47 kg pure-grade heroin and Rs 1.07 lakh drug money from their possession, said Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav here on Sunday.

Those arrested have been identified as Baljinder Singh alias Lovely (21), Sukhchain Singh alias Lucky (19), Solav Singh (19), Gurcharan Singh alias Milkha (21), Karandeep Singh (29), Daljit Singh alias Maani (23), all residents of Fazilka; and Kamaldeep Singh (32) of Kapurthala.

Accused Kamaldeep Singh has a criminal background and has already been facing two cases under the NDPS act in Kapurthala.

Apart from recovering heroin and drug money, police teams have also recovered 40 live cartridges, six mobile phones, 8.4 gram of gold and 68.97 gram of silver from them, besides, impounding a Hyundai Verna car and three motorcycles.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said preliminary investigation had revealed that most of the accused are students and were preparing for army recruitment when they got acquainted with Kapurthala-based drug smuggler Kamaldeep Singh and started smuggling heroin from across the border. The arrested accused were in touch with a Pakistan-based smuggler and were getting drug consignments via drones, he added.

He said investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages and identify the Pakistan-based drug smuggler.

Sharing operation details, SSP Pragya Jain said police teams got inputs that accused Baljinder Singh, Sukhchain Singh, Solav Singh, Gurcharan Singh, Karandeep Singh and Kamaldeep Singh had got consignment smuggled from Pakistan and kept it concealed at accused Baljinder’s house.

Teams from Amir Khaas police station raided the spot and managed to arrest all the accused when they were about to leave their house in their car and recovered drug consignment, live cartridges and drug money from their possession, she said, adding that later police teams also arrested accused Daljit Singh.

The SSP said the majority of the accused were first-timers and for the last four months they had been into the drug smuggling business. Further investigations are on, she added.

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