Punjab leads in NDPS arrests in north India, Delhi in synthetic drugs; Haryana key transit route

The report was based on data from six states and UTs, including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttarakhand.

Updated on: May 24, 2026, 10:20:28 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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Punjab has witnessed the highest number of cases and arrests made under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act among six northern states and Union Territories (UTs) between 2020 and 2024, while Delhi emerged as a major hub for synthetic and precursor drugs, according to a comparative report based on Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) data.

FILE: Punjab police arrests accused on way to J&K to smuggle the drugs.

The report was based on data from six states and UTs, including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttarakhand.

Punjab registered 45,967 NDPS cases and arrested 62,245 persons during the five-year period — the highest among all jurisdictions studied, according to the report. The state also led in heroin seizures with 5,942.29 kg recovered and accounted for 56.7 million tablets seized.

Also Read: Assam tops NDPS arrests in East, Northeast; Manipur leads heroin seizures

The data highlighted distinct trafficking and consumption patterns across the region, with border states such as Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir showing high heroin and hashish seizures, while Delhi reflected a strong synthetic narcotics profile.

Delhi records high cocaine, mephedrone seizures

Delhi stood out for its urban-market and logistics-linked narcotics network. Between 2020 and 2024, authorities seized 1,525.86 kg of cocaine, 272.51 kg of mephedrone and 989.45 kg of ephedrine/pseudoephedrine in the national capital.

The report described Delhi as having the “clearest urban-market and synthetic/precursor profile” among the six regions, with enforcement agencies urged to monitor nightlife circuits, courier channels, logistics hubs and darknet-linked trafficking.

Delhi also reported over 20.6 million tablets seized during the period.

Haryana emerges as major transit corridor

Haryana was identified as a major overland trafficking corridor linking Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and hill states. Authorities seized 51,074 kg of ganja, 74,828 kg of poppy husk/straw and 1,465.99 kg of opium in the state over five years.

Also Read: Amit Shah declares war on drugs after eradicating Maoists

The report said the state's extensive highway and rail connectivity necessitated sustained highway interdiction and logistics monitoring operations.

J&K shows sustained heroin-hashish risk

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 897.20 kg of heroin seizures and 3,195.30 kg of hashish recoveries from 2020 to 2024, indicating what the report termed a “border-adjacent risk profile”.

The report linked the seizures to Pakistan-linked smuggling exposure and vulnerabilities in mountainous transit routes.

Hill states under scanner

Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand registered lower overall case volumes compared to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, but the report flagged increasing risks linked to hashish, heroin and pharmaceutical drugs.

Himachal Pradesh recorded over 2,022 kg of hashish seizures during the five-year period, while Uttarakhand reported 1,389.90 kg.

The report recommended closer intelligence-sharing among agencies including the NCB, BSF, SSB, state police units and railway authorities to tackle inter-state trafficking networks and precursor diversion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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