Five operatives of cross-border smuggling module nabbed near Amritsar

With the arrest of five persons, the Counter Intelligence (CI) here on Friday claimed to have busted a cross-border arms and narcotics smuggling module and seized six sophisticated pistols, 1 kg heroin and Rs 6 lakh drug money from their possession.

Those arrested included Jaskaran Singh of Bhittewad village, Amritpal Singh of Rangarh village, Gurwinder Singh and Amandeep Singh of Boparai village and Harkeerat Singh of Mansoora village in Ludhiana.

The police seized two 9 mm Glock pistols along with magazines, two .30-bore Px5 pistols along with magazines and two .30-bore Star Mark Pistols, along with magazines. Apart from this, it has impounded two cars and a bike used for transporting the consignments.

Director-General. Punjab Police, Gaurav Yadav said that as per preliminary probe, the accused were acting upon the instructions of certain Pak-based smugglers, who were using drones to drop drugs and weapon consignments. They were further supplying the arms to criminals and gangsters in Punjab in order to fuel criminal activities in the state, he pointed out.

The CI received a reliable input that a Pak-based smuggler had delivered two separate consignments through drones, which were retrieved by the arrested persons. Acting upon the information, a police party launched an intelligence-based operation and intercepted these five suspects when they were waiting to deliver the consignments.

The DGP said one of the arrested accused turned out to be a hawala operator, identified as Harkeerat — from whom Rs 6 lakh was seized, and who was further supposed to route the illicit money to Pakistan via hawala channels.

A case has been registered under Sections 21, 25, 27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act and Section 25 of the Arms Act at State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar police station, while a probe was on.