Cross-border drug smuggling ring: Nabbed hawala dealer was key player in Dubai-Punjab drug trade

Ludhiana resident arrested by Chandigarh Police was paid ₹2 crore per smuggled consignment for moving drug money through hawala

Money Kalra, the high-profile hawala operator arrested during probe into the cross-border drug smuggling racket busted earlier this month, is a key accomplice of Punjab drug lord Akshay Chhabra, police investigation has found.

Punjab drug lord Akshay Chhabra had disclosed that between 2020 to 2022, he had delivered around 2,000 kg heroin, received from Haji Yusuf, and earned around ₹60 crore. (Getty image)

Chhabra was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Chandigarh, last year for smuggling 2,000 kg heroin into Punjab in connivance with Dubai-based drug smuggler Haji Yusuf.

Money, along with his father, Surinder Kalra, and brother Sunny Kalra, handled hawala transactions for the drug deals executed between Chhabra and Yusuf, as per the anti-narcotics task force (ANTF) of the Chandigarh Police that arrested Money on the intervening night between Thursday and Friday. Search for his father and brother continues.

Through the well-oiled international drug network, the Kalras, residents of Phase 2, Dugri, Ludhiana, had raked in crores, said police.

Since Chhabra’s arrest in November 2022, NCB had been hot on trail of Money, purported mastermind of multiple shell companies, used for movement and laundering of drug money.

As per sources, NCB will be taking Money on remand from Chandigarh Police soon for probe into Chhabra’s drug syndicate.

Handled hawala transactions worth ₹300 crore

Following his arrest by NCB, Chhabra had disclosed that between 2020 to 2022, he had delivered around 2,000 kg heroin, received from Haji Yusuf, and earned around ₹60 crore.

Around ₹300 crore, payment for the smuggled heroin, was sent to Yusuf in Dubai through hawala trader Surinder Kalra, who runs a firm by the name of Impex Overseas Journal Trading of Dubai, he had revealed.

Police said Yusuf would send large heroin consignments to Chhabra in Punjab through three channels — via Jammu Kashmir, Delhi and Mundra Port, Gujarat.

Concealed in containers carrying legally imported goods, the consignments were taken to Chhabra’s warehouses in New Grain Market, Ludhiana, taken on lease by one Hitesh Verma.

One such shipment, carrying heroin in juice bottles and addressed to Verma’s firm, was sent by Yusuf at Mundra Port in October 2022, and it was hawala operator Surinder who got the container cleared, before dispatching it to Chhabra’s warehouse.

Moved drugs through juice, tomato ketchup shipments

Police said Money and his father, Surinder Kalra, were actively involved in importing at least three consignments of illegal heroin from international sources.

“These heroin consignments were supplied in containers carrying juice and tomato ketchup. In the first two shipments, which reached India through Amritsar’s Attari border in October 2020 and January 2021, the contraband was concealed in pomegranate juice boxes, while in the third consignment, 350 kg morphine was moved through tomato paste boxes via Mundra Port in Gujarat,” a police official said.

Every consignment smuggled with Kalras’ abetment would make the father-son duo richer by ₹2 crore. “For the commission, Kalras would sweat to get any stuck shipments cleared, including one of tomato paste with hidden heroin that was held up at Mundra Port,” the officer added.

Chhabra also had a dispute with Surinder regarding a payment of ₹10 crore that was later settled for ₹5 crore, he said.

Earlier, the ANTF, unearthing the international drug racket, had arrested six men, including the son of an assistant sub-inspector of Punjab Police, besides a smuggler lodged in the Ferozepur jail, leading to the recovery 130 gm more heroin and ₹78 lakh drug money.

In July, police had arrested Shubham Jain, 28, of Sector 45, Chandigarh, and his supplier, Puneet Kumar, 24, of Ferozepur, whose father is serving as an ASI in Ferozepur. Kumar was also found in possession of an illegal .32-bore country made pistol and five live cartridges.

Following the disclosure of Puneet, three drug smugglers — Pawan Preet Singh, 24, Ravinder Pal Singh, 31, and Chandan, 23 — all residents of Ferozepur, were arrested.

Ravinder led police to another smuggler, Jagjeet, alias Jagga, 33, who is lodged in Ferozepur jail and had been running the racket from there.

Money’s arrest came on the disclosure by Chandan, who revealed that he had given ₹6.5 lakh as drug money to him in Sector 45, Chandigarh.