With peddlers devising new ways to bring drugs into the state, Government Railway Police’s (GRP) Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) team have been on their toes.
Drugs like charas, ganja, opium and intoxicating pills come into Punjab via trains from states like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.
Peddlers prey on those in desperate need of money to courier drugs, says inspector Palwinder Singh, who heads the CIA team at the GRP station.
These smugglers use tricks like double bags (using a false bottom to conceal the drug underneath) and sticking drugs onto the body with tape to dodge checking. To an unversed eye, Singh says, they do not raise any suspicion, but upon careful investigation considering the weight of the bags or puffed clothes, the police teams check the couriers and seize their consignments.
The couriers are often groomed to work as regulars until caught. One such case was that of Hari Saini, a resident of Gaya, Bihar, who had made over 50 trips and had allegedly moved around 2-3 quintals of ganja into the state before getting caught in 2022. Afroz Ansari from Jharkhand was also apprehended in 2022 after he had made around 15 trips, bridging with him around a quintal of opium.
Another trick in the peddlers’ book, the inspector says, was recruiting women and teenagers, who pass off as unsuspicious. Of the 30-odd people arrested last year, eight were women and some four teenagers.
{{/usCountry}}Another trick in the peddlers’ book, the inspector says, was recruiting women and teenagers, who pass off as unsuspicious. Of the 30-odd people arrested last year, eight were women and some four teenagers.
{{/usCountry}}The inspector further reveals that busting the racket, especially the mediators who receive the drugs from suppliers and distribute it further, was challenging as the couriers do not in most cases have any information about them.
“The pictures and details of these couriers, along with the trains they are travelling on, are sent to the recipients on WhatsApp. The couriers do not have any idea who they are to meet,” he adds.
Due to this modus operandi, it is important to first nab the source and then get information out of them to dismantle the nexus.
Last year, around 98 kg ganja and 57 kg opium had been seized by the GRP at the Ludhiana station, nearly double the recoveries from a year ago.
In one the latest busts of 2023, the CIA had in December arrested couriers Dand Janu and Jagannath with a consignment of 17 kg ganja. The duo had made around six trips from Odisha to Jammu
Around 90% of the seizures were made during regular random check-ups based on suspicion. However, interestingly in some cases rival kingpins also snitched on their competitors.
“When a kingpin is doing better than others, they try to leak information on their couriers to us,” Singh says.