E-Paper
3 held for cross-border smuggling, drone seized in separate incidents in Tarn Taran
Two of the accused were wanted in the seizure of 2 Glock pistols airdropped by a drone in a school situated in a border village
: Police on Monday arrested three persons allegedly involved in cross-border smuggling of drugs and weapons in two separate incidents, while a Chinese drone that entered the Indian territory from Pakistan was recovered separately in a joint operation with the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tarn Taran district.
The arrested accused have been identified as Malkiat Singh of Dhala village, Karamjit Singh alias Goldy of Narli village in Tarn Taran district, and Sukhdev Singh of Jathol village in Amritsar district.
“The first operation was launched by Sara-E-Amanat Khan station house officer (SHO) and his team who had the input that Malkiat Singh along with Jaspreet Singh and Mukhtiar Singh of Dhala village are involved in high level heroin smuggling using drones from across the border. The team arrested Malkiat and recovered 1.10 kg of heroin from the roof of his house. The heroin was dropped by a drone which sneaked into the Indian airspace from the Pakistan side. Our raids are on to nab Malkiat’s two associates,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ashwani Kapur said.
“With their arrest, more recoveries are expected. We are also working to ascertain the identity of the Pakistani smugglers who were in touch with the accused to break the entire supply chain,” he said.
Giving details about the other two arrests made by a team led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Bhikhiwind, Preetinder Singh, the SSP said, “On December 2, two Glock pistols were airdropped by a Pakistani drone in a government school’s premises in Khalra village. Our team worked hard and on the basis of a technical investigation, Karamjit and Sukhdev were arrested. The investigation found that both the accused were tasked to retrieve the consignment of weapons. Our investigation is on to find the purpose of smuggling high-end pistols from across the border.”
The SSP further said that the third operation was launched jointly with BSF.
“Our police team jointly launched a search operation in Daliri village on the basis of a tip-off. During the search, a Chinese drone was recovered which entered the Indian territory from Pakistan. It is suspected that the drone was used for smuggling of drugs and weapons. Our investigation is on to ascertain the identity of the accused who were tasked to retrieve the consignments airdropped by the recovered drone.”
The SSP said that all the accused have been booked under various sections of the NDPS act, Arms Act and Indian Aircraft Act at various police stations.
