Sep 21, 2024 10:25 PM IST
Punjab Police’s Anti-Narcotic Task Force arrested 10 in a major drug bust, seizing 1kg heroin, arms, cash, and gold. Further investigations ongoing.
The Punjab Police’s Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF), in a joint operation with a central agency, busted a major drug trafficking syndicate with the arrest of 10 persons, said director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Saturday.
Those arrested have been identified as Chandan Sharma, Akash Sharma, Vishal Singh, Arvinder Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Rinku Thapar, Bharat, Divyam, Pratham, and Ankush Bhatti, police officials said
“Police teams have also recovered 1kg of heroin, 381grams of charas, three pistols, including one sophisticated Glock pistol along with 62 cartridges and two empty shells, ₹48.7 lakh drug money, 262 grams of gold and electronic devices from their possession,” Yadav said.
The DGP said that the accused persons were operating the drug network and running operations in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana.
“Probe revealed that after smuggling drugs from across the border, the accused persons were sending money to Pakistan-based drug smugglers via hawala route,” the DGP added.
He said the probe was carried out utilising technical surveillance and human intelligence, to tackle complex criminal networks.
“Further investigations are on to establish backwards and forward linkages in this case, the DGP added, while adding that more arrests are expected.
ANTF special DGP Kuldeep Singh said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested accused Lovepreet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was the key person managing the entire drug network of this syndicate and was using his vast network of contacts to smuggle drugs and arms across the state.
Police teams have also found a hidden closet at the house of accused Lovepreet, where he used to conceal all the smuggled narcotics and hawala money, besides, using it as a safe shelter for himself, Kuldeep Singh added.
A case has been registered under Sections 20 and 21(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station ANTF, Mohali.