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Punjab: Smuggler hires swimmers to bring heroin from Pakistan, held
Jalandhar Rural Police arrested an alleged drug trafficker and seized 9kg of heroin. The accused was involved in cross-border drug smuggling.
The Jalandhar Rural Police on Thursday arrested an alleged drug trafficker identified as Malkiat Singh alias Kali said to be involved in cross-border drug smuggling. Police seized 9kg of heroin from the accused, police officials said.
According to police, Kali had allegedly sent three swimmers to fetch 50kg of heroin from Pakistan via Sutlej and today’s recovery was part of the 50kg heroin consignment.
Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said that 22.5 kg of the heroin has already been recovered by the police taking the total recovery to 31.5 kg.
“In a major breakthrough, Jalandhar Rural Police has arrested big fish drug trafficker Malkait Singh @ Kali and seized 9kg heroin,” Yadav, posted on X.
“He used to execute cross-border drug smuggling along with his associates. FIR under the NDPS Act is registered at PS Goraya,” he added.
HT was first to report on August 23 that smugglers are hiring professional swimmers to bring drug consignments from Pakistan through Sutlej, which enters Pakistan and then re-enters India at several places along the border, making it ideal for anti-national elements to smuggle contraband from across the border.
Known as drug couriers, swimmers were paid between ₹50,000-60,000 per kg of heroin but due to the ongoing floods, the incentive has been hiked to ₹1 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh per kg of heroin, said a security agency official aware of the matter.
Yadav, while terming recovery of this big haul, said it was the result of vigorous follow-up investigations by the Punjab Police.
Malkiat Singh, a resident of village Tendi Wala in Ferozepur, was arrested near Boparai Canal Bridge near Goraya with heroin kept in his shoulder bag, the statement said.
The development came less than a month after Jalandhar Rural Police arrested drug smuggler Joga Singh, who swam via river into Pakistan to retrieve a heroin consignment. Eight kg of heroin was recovered from Joga Singh.
Jalandhar Rural’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said that Kali has revealed that he was in regular touch with a Pakistan-based drug smuggler identified as Haider Ali, who helped him in smuggling the heroin consignments to India in lieu of a hawala operator.
“Malkiat Kali also revealed that he had sent Joga Singh along with two more persons to Pakistan using a riverine route to fetch the 50kg heroin consignment, which was equally distributed between his party and Joga Singh’s party,” he said.
Further investigations in the matter are underway, and police teams are on a manhunt to arrest the remaining drug smugglers involved in this module, he said.
SSP Bhullar added that further investigations are on, and police teams are on a manhunt to arrest remaining drug smugglers involved in this module.
A fresh FIR has been registered under section 21C of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at police station Goraya.
Trail of recoveries
The development came less than a month after the Jalandhar Rural Police arrested drug smuggler Joga Singh, who swam into the Pakistan jurisdiction to retrieve the heroin consignment and 8kg of heroin was recovered from him. Earlier, the SSOC Amritsar had arrested a drug smuggler identified as Shinder Singh after recovering 10kg heroin and ₹1.5 lakh drug money from his possession. A woman drug smuggler identified as Amandeep Kaur alias Deep Bhai linked to this module was also arrested with 1kg of heroin, while, another drug smuggler Shinderpal alias Pappu was arrested with 500 grams of heroin from Mehatpur.
