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Chandigarh: Now, drug peddler’s helper caught with 1.25 kg heroin
Fruit seller-turned-drug smuggler had been paying his helper ₹1. 5 lakh per month to move large consignments of heroin, say Chandigarh Police
Digging deeper into the network of the fruit seller-turned-drug smuggler who was arrested with 2.01 kg heroin on December 6, police have nabbed another fruit seller, who worked as his courier.
Paid a handsome ₹1. 5 lakh per month by the main accused, Amit Sharma, the fruit seller, identified as Ajay Kumar, 24, handled the big consignments for his boss, said police.
With the arrest of Kumar, who hails from Awasthi Purwa village in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, police recovered another 1.25 kg heroin.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said, “Kumar met Sharma while they both worked as fruit sellers in Ambala. After Sharma turned to drug peddling, Kumar started working as his courier around eight months ago. He was tasked with delivering large quantities of heroin and selling commercial quantities to peddlers in the tricity and Himachal Pradesh as well.”
Sharma had rented a room in Raipur Khurd for Kumar for this work and was paying him ₹5,000 per day for it. Kumar was arrested from the room on Friday and 255 gm of heroin was recovered from him.
After the arrest, both accused were brought together and grilled, following which they revealed a hidden compartment behind an almirah drawer in the room from where 1 kg more heroin was recovered.
Used ghee cans, cold cream containers to smuggle heroin
Detailing the accused’s modus operandi, SSP Chahal said to move heroin without detection, they would use ghee canisters with false bottoms. For selling heroin to peddlers, they even used cold cream containers. Using these methods, the SSP said, they would hand over drugs in crowded places, like markets, without drawing suspicion.
Have links with Punjab smugglers who get drugs from Pak
SSP Chahal said from the accused’s testimony it had come to fore that they were in contact with smugglers from Punjab who were smuggling heroin from across the Pakistan border. Police officials said they were in touch with the Narcotics Control Bureau regarding this.
Investigators said the two accused were not drug addicts themselves. While they were also selling heroin to some dealers in the tricity, particularly in Mohali, most of their network was in Himachal Pradesh, they said.
Main accused’s assets being probed
Police are also looking into the investments made by Sharma. So far, they have identified properties worth over ₹2 crore, which include a flat and two showrooms in Zirakpur. Through rent from the showrooms, he had paid off a ₹40-50 lakh loan that he had taken from someone in Uttar Pradesh.
Sources said he had spent around ₹1 crore on his house in Uttar Pradesh, making it one of the most lavish properties there.
On the police radar for around six months, the 41-year-old was arrested from near the Ram Darbar turn on December 6 while travelling in a Honda City, bearing a Chandigarh registration number. A Class-10 dropout, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and now lives in Zirakpur, Sharma was wanted in at least 15 criminal cases, including those of burglary, dacoity and drug peddling.
Police are working to unravel Sharma’s network further and arrest his other aides and possibly other kingpins.
