Punjab Police cracks down on drugs smugglers, 14.8 kg heroin recovered

In a major crackdown on smuggling of narcotics and weapons across the border from Pakistan, Punjab Police's Intelligence Wing has busted a gang of heroin smugglers and arrested four people, including an ex-soldier, police said on Tuesday.

"Police have seized from the suspects 14.8 kg of heroin, valued approximately at Rs 74 crore in the international market, along with a .30 bore Pistol," a police spokesman said here.

The suspects have named a Border Security Force constable posted at the border and two other associates as being involved in the smuggling racket, he said.

BSF authorities have been informed about the constable's "active collusion and conspiracy in drug smuggling" and advised to initiate necessary action against him, the spokesman added.

The arrests followed information received by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), that some drug smugglers from Amritsar and Tarn Taran areas were in contact with Pakistan-based smugglers and were indulging in heroin smuggling through the Ramdas sector of the India-Pakistan border.

The suspects include Tarwinder Singh, an ex-serviceman, who served in the Indian Army as a sepoy for 16 years before retiring on pension in 2016.

Investigations have revealed that Tarwinder Singh, Bikramjit Singh and BSF trooper Chenthilraj Kanagaraj were in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers for quite some time. They were using different social media apps to communicate amongst themselves and with their Pakistan-based associates.

It has been learnt that Bikramjit Singh had been earlier arrested in a heroin related case in 2017 and had been in jail from from where he was bailed out in September 2017.

The BSF authorities have been intimated about the role of BSF constable Kanagaraj to ensure proceeding under the BSF Act.

"He will soon be taken on police remand and prosecuted by SSOC Amritsar for his active role in smuggling of heroin," said the spokesman.

--IANS

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