Drug smuggling module busted; five arrested

The Amritsar city police commissionerate busted a heroin trafficking cartel with the arrest of five persons, including notorious smuggler Soni Singh, alias Soni, and recovered 8.1 kg of heroin from his possession.

Interestingly, they used to dump the contraband in hotels to further circulate drug consignments.

Among others arrested included Gursewak Singh, Vishaldeep Singh, alias Gola, Gurpreet Singh and Arshdeep Singh, all residents of Ajnala in Amritsar.

Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said, “The syndicate was operating from Pakistan and drones were being used to deliver large consignments of heroin into Indian territory.” As per an initial probe, the syndicate used hotels as contraband dumps to circulate consignments further into the network, he added.

Further investigations are in progress to establish their forward and backward linkages in this case to identify handlers, supply chains and financial networks, he said.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the racket was busted following reliable intelligence inputs. The police arrested drug smuggler Soni Singh from the outskirts of the city along with 150 grams of heroin and drug money. His interrogation revealed that he had six cases registered against him under the NDPS Act. He had come out of jail in June and had further delivered consignments of nearly 30 kg heroin that came via drones, supplying them further across the chain, he said.

His disclosure led to the arrest of his associates Gursewak Singh who was held with 8.037 kg heroin. The latter was handling the consignments to be delivered in the city, said the Police Commissioner, adding that further investigation led to the arrest of remaining active members of this smuggling module. More arrests and recoveries are likely in the coming days, he added.