Punjab Police Bust Trans-Border Arms and Narco-Terrorism Hawala Racket

Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav announced here on Thursday that the Amritsar Commissionerate Police, in the midst of the ongoing war on drugs driven by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, had busted a trans-border illegal arms and narco-terrorism hawala racket with the arrest of eight accused, including a Kingpin identified as Ranjit Singh alias Kaka.

In addition to Kingpin, the other individuals detained are Gharinda in Amritsar residents Rajinder alias Raja, Abhishek alias Abhi, Vishal alias Shalu, Lovepreet alias Kalu, Gurbhej alias Bheja, Gurjant, and Jaspal.

DGP Gaurav Yadav claimed that police teams have also discovered 4.10kg heroin, two pistols— Pakistan-made Zigana pistol and .32 bore handgun— along with 45 live cartridges and Rs 2.07 lakh drug money from their hands, while impounding their seven vehicles bought with drug money. Hyundai Verna, Mahindra Thar, Hyundai i20, Maruti Swift Dzire, Maruti Zen, Activa scooter, and Splendor motorbike are among the recovered automobiles.

The DGP stated that further entities with cross-border connections and Hawala involvement are still being sought out as part of the ongoing operation.

This came about as a result of the Amritsar Commissionerate Police's painstaking backward and forward linkage investigations into the arrest of a local drug dealer named Rajinder, also known as Raja, 22, of Gharinda in Amritsar. Raja was found in possession of 500 grams of heroin, Rs 40,000 in drug money, a Verna car, and a pistol. The Amritsar Rural Police had also issued a warrant for the accused Rajinder Raja in connection with a murder attempt.

Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Ranjit Singh Dhillon provided additional details, stating that backward linkage was traced to kingpin Ranjit Singh, also known as Kaka, during an investigation into the arrest of Rajinder Raja. The investigation was conducted by a team from CIA 1 led by Inspector Amandeep Singh and Police Station Islamabad, under the supervision of ADCP Zone 1 Dr. Darpan Ahluwalia and ADCP Detective Navjot Singh Sandhu.

He said that police teams had successfully apprehended Kingpin Ranjit Kaka and other accused parties following a thorough follow-up of the cash trail and technical investigations. Additionally, smuggled heroin, guns, and live cartridges had been discovered.

According to the CP, the investigation has shown that the Kingpin Ranjit Kaka, who had direct connections with companies in Pakistan, was operating an illicit firearms and heroin network in Punjab, feeding the Hawala network, and rerouting to Pakistan.

He continued, "More research is being done to determine backward and forward links in this instance."