Ex-SPO among 2 arrested with Rs56-crore heroin

Our Correspondent

Poonch, December 22

The police arrested two persons, including a former Special Police Officer, now Lashkar worker, with heroin worth over Rs 56 crore in Poonch on Sunday.

SSP Poonch JS Johar said this at a press conference on Sunday evening. The police received a tip-off that two local youths with 56.16 kg heroin were on their way to Jammu to deliver the consignment.

The police personnel laid a naka at the Kalai bridge. On seeing a a Mahindra goods carrier (JK12-1652), they stopped it. During checking, they recovered 54 packets of the drug weighing 1.04 kg each.

A case was registered against the duo. The accused were identified as Shakeel Ahmed and Mohd Rafi, residents of the Danadoian tehsil in Poonch district.

“Mohd Rafi was an SPO who had turned into an overground worker of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. He was actively involved in various anti-national activities,” said the SSP.

“The consignment can be used as a part of the narco-terrorism nexus. Further interrogation of the accused is going on,” he said.

Sources said the consignment had been brought from Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir. They added that the accused had managed to cross various Army posts near the Line of Control.