Cross-border drug cartel busted, five arrested with 7 kg heroin in Amritsar
The Amritsar Commissionerate Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted two interlinked cross-border narcotics smuggling cartels with the arrest of five persons and the recovery of 7 kg of heroin from their possession.
The accused have been identified as Deepak Singh, alias Deepu (22), a resident of Harkrishan Nagar in Chheharta, Amritsar; Prince Singh, alias Prince, a resident of Kohala village in Amritsar; Rajinder Singh, alias Ghuddu (23); Randeep Singh, alias Dil (19); and Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi (21), all three residents of Sensra Kalan village in Amritsar. Apart from the heroin, the police also impounded a motorcycle being used for drug trafficking.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said preliminary investigations revealed that the accused were in contact with a Pakistan-based smuggler, who was sending consignments via drones and coordinating the distribution of drugs across the state through local handlers. He added that further investigation is underway to establish both forward and backward linkages of the network.
Sharing operational details, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that acting on specific intelligence inputs, police teams first arrested Deepak Singh and recovered 1.3 kg of heroin from his possession. During further interrogation, an additional 2.6 kg of heroin was recovered, taking the total recovery from him to 4.04 kg.
He further said that during investigation into the common Pakistan-based handler, police arrested three more accused — Rajinder (alias Ghuddu), Randeep (alias Dil), and Gurpreet (alias Gopi) — and recovered 1.01 kg of heroin from them. Based on their disclosures, another associate, Prince Singh, was apprehended, leading to the recovery of 2 kg of heroin from his possession.
The Police Commissioner also stated that Deepak has a prior criminal record under the NDPS Act, with a case registered against him in Khanna. In this connection, two separate cases under Section 21-C of the NDPS Act have been registered at the Chheharta and Cantonment police stations.
