Punjab Police Busts Pak-Backed Drug Cartels, Seizes Heroin, Pistols in Amritsar

CHANDIGARH: Striking yet another major blow to the trans-border smuggling amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a drug free state as per directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police has busted two more Pak-backed drug smuggling rackets with the arrest of six persons after recovering 8kg heroin and three pistols from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Saturday. Both the intelligence-led operations were executed by the Amritsar Rural Police.

The development came a day after the Amritsar Commissionerate Police has busted two cross-border drug smuggling cartels being operated by Pakistan-based smugglers with the arrest of three drug traffickers after recovering 9.2Kg heroin (8.2Kg+1Kg) from their possession.

Divulging details of the operation, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on secret information about two persons on their Hero Splendor motorcycle are going to deliver a drug consignment, Police teams from Amritsar Rural managed to locate and intercepted them near Brick Kiln at village Bachiwind. 

After apprehending both the drug smugglers identified as Gurbhej Singh and Jaskaran Singh, both residents of village Manj in Amritsar, police teams have recovered 6kg heroin and three pistols— including one 9MM Glock and two .32 bore pistols— from their possession and also impounded their motorcycle, he said.

A case FIR No. 134 dated 29/06/2024 has been registered under sections 21-C, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station Lopoke in Amritsar.

In another intelligence-led operation, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the Patrolling party teams of Amritsar Rural Police has arrested father and son among four persons while they were cracking a deal of 2kg heroin consignment near village Nurpur in the jurisdiction of Police Station Lopoke.

The arrested persons, who were delivering the drug consignment, have been identified as Balbir Singh and his son Aakashdeep Singh, both residents of Kohali in Amritsar. While, other two arrested persons, who were supposed to receive the consignment, have been identified as Philpus and Jobanjit Singh, both residents of village Mulechak in Amritsar.

Apart from recovering 2kg heroin, Police teams have recovered Rs 30000 drug money from their possession and impounded their Activa Scooter and a motorcycle.

In this regard, a case FIR no 132 dated 28/06/2024 has been registered under sections 21-C, 25, 27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Lopoke in Amritsar.

The DGP said that investigations are on-going to establish backward and forward linkages in both the cases.

Sharing more details, SSP Amritsar Rural Satinder Singh said that as per preliminary investigations, all the arrested accused persons in both the cases were directly in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers, who were supplying drugs across the state after smuggling from Pakistan via Drones. 

He said that further investigations are being conducted to unearth the whole network of drug suppliers, dealers and their buyers. Efforts are being made to ascertain the total amount of narcotics procured by the arrested accused persons till date, said the SSP.