DRI seizes heroin worth Rs 38.36 cr from India-Pakistan border in Amritsar

Amritsar (Punjab) [India], May 12 (ANI): Foiling a drug trafficking bid, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recovered 5.480 kg of heroin worth Rs 38.36 crore on the India-Pakistan border in Amritsar.

DRI officials unearthed a novel modus operandi of heroin smuggling into India through the land route at the India-Pakistan border.

Based on specific intelligence, DRI officials intercepted a consignment of brooms at Integrated Check Post, Attari, Amritsar on Thursday. On examination, 5.480 kg of heroin was recovered, whose value in the international market has been estimated at Rs 38.36 crore.

In the consignment of 4,000 pieces of brooms in 40 bags, the heroin was stealthily filled in 442 hollow short sticks of bamboo (in 3 bags) with ends of such sticks artificially sealed and such sticks were further concealed by being packed inside "Afghan Brooms" which were tied up with iron wire on the outside.

According to the official statement, the cargo consignment of "Afghan Brooms" from Afghanistan was imported by an Afghan national with fake Indian IDs in connivance with his Indian national wife.

The statement further added that the said Afghan national was out on bail granted in an earlier Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, case booked by Delhi Police in 2018.

Both, the Afghan National and his wife were arrested under NDPS Act, 1985. Further, follow-up action and investigations to unearth the entire conspiracy and smuggling module and to gather evidence are being conducted. (ANI)