Punjab Police busts drug smuggling racket in Amritsar, 15 kg heroin seized

Director general of police Gaurav Yadav said the accused has been identified as Harpreet Singh and a case has been registered against him

The police on Wednesday busted a cross-border drone-based smuggling module with the arrest of one of its members and recovery of 15 kg of heroin in Kathunangal area.

The arrested drug smuggler has been identified as Harpreet Singh of Chohla Sahib, presently residing at New Ranjitpura in Amritsar. (HT photo)

The operation was conducted on the basis of an input provided by a village-level defence committee (VLDC), said the police. The seizure and arrest come a day after Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav’s visit to border districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur. The purpose of the DGP’s visit was to increase the coordination between the police and VLDCs.

The VLDCs are formed in most of the sensitive border villages to support Punjab Police’s three-pronged strategy — enforcement, de-addiction and prevention — to uproot the problem of drugs. There are around 20 members in each VLDCs.

The arrested drug smuggler has been identified as Harpreet Singh of Chohla Sahib, presently residing at New Ranjitpura in Amritsar. Apart from recovering heroin, the police teams also impounded a car, in which he was travelling.

‘Over 1,400-kg heroin seized this year so far’

Recently, inspector general of police (IGP), headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill said the police teams have recovered 1,400.77-kg heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.

The DGP said following the forward and backward linkages, the police also nominated four associates of accused Harpreet. Those nominated have been identified as Gagandeep Singh, Rahul Singh and Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, all resident of Jandiala Guru, and Gagandeep Singh of Khadoor Sahib.

Divulging more details, Amritsar border-range DIG Narinder Bhargav said the preliminary investigations in the case have revealed that the heroin consignment belonged to drug smuggler Happy and arrested accused Harpreet Singh was going to deliver the consignment on his directions. Accused Happy is the kingpin and a most wanted drug smuggler in the belt, he added.

“This is not the first case when a seizure of drug is made with the help of a VLDC. Last week, two consignments of heroin, though small, were recovered after secret information was provided by VLDCs,” he said.

The VLDCs were formed after Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit had visited Punjab border villages to increase the coordination between the security forces and the border villagers to tackle the drone threat.

He said further investigations are on and the remaining accused persons will be arrested soon. Senior superintendent of police (SSP), rural, Satinder Singh said the consignment was dropped by Pakistan drones.

A case in this regard has been registered under Sections 21C and 25 of the NDPS Act.