Punjab Police busts another drugs smuggling racket

Chandigarh, July 4 (IANS) In its second success in the past 24 hours, the Punjab Police's Intelligence Wing on Wednesday busted a three-member gang of smugglers in Amritsar district and seized three kilograms of heroin from their possession, a police official said.

The heroin is valued at over Rs 15 crore in international market.

"With this breakthrough, the Punjab police has seized 17.8 kg of heroin, valued at Rs 89 crore in international market, in the past 24 hours from the border district of Amritsar," a police spokesman said here on Wednesday.

Those arrested include Dhir Singh, Harjinder Singh and Gagandeep Singh, all residents of Lopoke area in Amritsar district.

They have been booked under various sections of the NDPS Act.

"During their interrogation, it was found that Dhir Singh had been befriended by a Pakistani national, Faizal, on Facebook. Since both of them had interest in 'kabootar baazi' (pigeon racing), they started exchanging messages on various social media apps. 

"Dhir Singh revealed that Faizal lured him into drug smuggling and since it was easy money, he involved his relative, Harjinder Singh, and his friend, Gagandeep Singh, in it," the spokesman said.

The trio revealed that they had been trying to smuggle heroin for the past few months but succeeded in getting the consignment from across the border on the intervening night of July 2 and 3.

The information about their arrest and their modus operandi has been shared with the Border Security Force (BSF) and other security agencies, the spokesman said.

"Seizures of such large quantities of heroin on two consecutive days clearly indicates that the India-Pakistan border continues to be active for drug smuggling, which is a matter of grave concern," he added.

On Tuesday, the Intelligence Wing had arrested four people, including an ex-Army man, and seized 14.8 kg of heroin, valued at approximately Rs 74 crore in the international market, from them.

During interrogation, the suspects had revealed that a BSF constable was colluding with them for smuggling the drugs.