As part of its special drive launched on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to arrest Proclaimed offenders POs/absconders in NDPS Act cases, Punjab Police has successfully managed to arrest as many as 141 such POs/Absconders over the last one month, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill here on Monday.
Talking about new trends in drug smuggling, Dr Gill, who was addressing a weekly Press Conference said that drug suppliers have started roping in women as an alibi to safely carry out drug trafficking. It has also come to notice that Drug peddlers these days prefer public transport systems for smuggling which require more human intelligence to track them, he added.
Giving weekly updates on drugs, he said that Punjab Police have arrested 472 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 354 first information reports (FIRs), including 36 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last one week.
The Police have also recovered 5.53Kg Heroin, 21.9Kg opium, 21.5 Kg Ganja, six quintals of poppy husk and 1.46 lakh tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids besides recovering Rs 23.37 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state, he said.
The IGP said that Punjab Police besides tightening the noose around the drug smugglers/suppliers has also been doing all the possible efforts to keep youth away from drugs besides helping to rehabilitate those who have already fallen prey to this menace.
He said that all the CPs/SSPs have been conducting different activities including public meetings, visiting drug affected villages, conducting seminars, holding joint meetings with MLAs, Sarpanches and Councillors besides involving NGOs and Youth Clubs to work against drugs at their respective districts to sensitise the youth about the harmful and ill-effects of drugs.
He said that as part of the ongoing campaign against drugs, the Barnala Police has organised a four-day Basketball league under-17 (Boys) to motivate youth towards sports and maintain their physical and mental health.Similarly, Malerkotla Police has launched a massive anti-drug program under the title of ‘Saanjhi Satth’ under which every SHO along with his team including one lady Police official visits one village every day in the evening time to meet villagers at any commonplace in the village, while, the worst affected or hotspot areas are being visited by the GOs to sensitize people about the ill-effects of drugs and motivating them to stay away from drugs, he added.
The IGP said that apart from sensitising youth, the Police teams are also counselling and motivating victims of drug addiction to shun this menace and helping them to bring them back to the mainstream by sending them to OOAT Centres for treatment.
Meanwhile, the DGP has strictly ordered all the CPs/SSPs to further tighten the noose around the drug smugglers by identifying all top drug smugglers and the hotspots infamous for drug smuggling in their jurisdictions and launching a combing operation to nab all those selling/smuggling drugs. He also directed the Police chiefs to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.