In yet another major crackdown on cross border narcotics smuggling, the Punjab Police’s Intelligence Wing on Wednesday busted a three-member gang of smugglers in Amritsar district and seized three kilograms of heroin, valued at over Rs 15 crores in international market, from their possession.With this breakthrough, the Punjab police has seized 17.8 kilograms of heroin, valuing Rs 89 crores in international market, in the past 24 hours from the border district of Amritsar.According to a police spokesperson, the arrested suspects were identified as Dhir Singh s/o Jarnail Singh, Harjinder Singh s/o Gurmeet Singh and Gagandeep Singh s/o Kulwinderpal Singh, all residents of Lopoke area, Amritsar. They have been booked under sections 21/25/29/61/85 of the NDPS ACT.During their interrogation, it was found that Dhir Singh had been befriended by a Pak national, Faizal, a resident of village Daud Bhaini, on Facebook. Since both of them had interest in ‘kabootar baazi’ (pigeon racing), they started exchanging messages on various social media apps.
Dhir Singh revealed that Faizal lured him into drug smuggling and since it was easy money, he involved his relative, Harjinder Singh, and his friend, Gagandeep Singh, in it. The trio revealed that they had been trying to smuggle heroin for the past few months but succeeded in getting the consignment from across the border on the intervening night of July 2/3. They revealed that they took advantage of the “porous” riverine terrain of the international border, and the heavy downpour that night helped them to get the consignment across. The information about their arrest and their modus operandi has been shared with the BSF and other security agencies, and they have been advised to take immediate steps to curb such activities. The spokesperson said that seizures of such large quantities of heroin on two consecutive days clearly indicates that the Indo-Pak border continues to be active for drug smuggling, which is a matter of grave concern.On Tuesday, the Intelligence Wing had arrested four persons, including an ex-Army man, and seized from the suspects 14.8 kgs of heroin, valuing approximately Rs 74 crores in the international market. During interrogation, the suspects had revealed that a BSF constable was colluding with them for smuggling the drugs.