125 kg heroin seized in border range in six months: Senior cop

Amritsar, June 19

The Amritsar (Rural) belt remains the hotspot as far as smuggling and seizure of heroin is concerned. The Amritsar border range comprises four police districts including Amritsar (Rural), Batala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.

The Punjab Police have recovered 125.50 kg of heroin from the Amritsar border range in the past six months out of which 17 kg drug was seized in Gurdaspur, 8.7 kg Pathankot and 4.9 kg in Batala.

Rakesh Kaushal, DIG, Amritsar border range, said the Punjab Police had adopted zero tolerance approach towards drug trafficking and no one involved in the illegal trade would be spared.

“The police have arrested 410 smugglers. As many as 304 FIRs have been registered in the past six months in connection with drug trafficking. We are carrying out cordon and search operations on regular basis in the entire border belt to nail traffickers and curb drug smuggling,” he said.

The police also seized 35 drones used for cross border drug smuggling. Besides contraband, the police have seized 80 kg of poppy husk, 6 kg of opium, 3 kg of charas and 15,000 intoxicants.

During six month period, the police also froze properties worth Rs 12.63 crore belonging to 35 drug traffickers. The DIG said properties worth Rs 6.48 crore were seized in Pathankot followed by Rs 3.67 crore in Amritsar, Rs 2.43 crore in Gurdaspur and Rs 46.92 lakh in Batala.

“A proposal for freezing properties worth Rs 5 crore earned from ill-gotten money through drug peddling has been sent to the competent authorities,” he said.

The police also seized 100 pistols, four revolvers, three rifles, 74 magazines and 470 cartridges during the past six months.