Heroin smuggling-linked hawala racket busted; 9 held
With the arrest of the accused, the police have also recovered ₹14.5-lakh drug money, 110-gm heroin, a pistol, five mobile phones, a dongle and five vehicles
The Amritsar police busted a heroin smuggling-linked hawala racket with the arrest of nine of its members from various locations in Punjab.
With the arrest of the accused, the police have also recovered ₹14.5-lakh drug money, 110-gm heroin, a pistol, five mobile phones, a dongle and five vehicles.
Senior superintendent of police (rural) Satinder Singh said the module members were arrested after investigation conducted by a special team led-by Attari deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Gurinderpal Singh Nagra.
“Firstly, the team arrested Baldev Singh of Kakkar village and Gurjant Singh of Nathupur village with ₹20,000 drug money. On the disclosure of the duo accused, one Tanvir Singh was nabbed with 110-gm heroin and ₹2.75-lakh drug money,” the SSP said.
He said, “On the questioning of Tanvir, the team located Sandeep Singh and Jaswant Singh of Patiala. They are involved in operating hawala money earned through drug smuggling business. From the two Patiala-based men, we recovered five mobiles, a dongle and ₹13,000-drug money.”
He further said, “Further probe into the case led to the arrest of Kuldeep Singh, Bhagwan Singh and Gurpreet Singh of border villages in Amritsar. From the trio accused, police recovered ₹11.5-lakh drug money.”
DSP Nagra said two of the Patiala-based arrested men have links in entire Punjab and were involved in handling drug money through hawala. “Our investigation is still on to nab more persons who are suspected to be involved in cross-border drug smuggling and hawala money operations in various countries,” he added.
The accused were booked under various sections of the NDPS Act at Lopoke police station.
