International drug, hawala rackets busted, 6 nabbed

The Amritsar Commissionerate Police have busted two crime rackets involving narcotics and illegal financial transactions, arresting six persons, including a Nigerian national, and recovering commercial quantities of cocaine, heroin, a firearm, and over Rs 8 lakh of hawala drug money. The breakthrough came through two separate cases reported at the Cantonment and Sadar police stations, respectively.

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In the first case, the police exposed an international party drug racket being run by a Nigerian citizen, Collins, who was arrested along with two local distributors, Ishpreet Singh, alias Harsh, and Akhlesh Vij, both residents of Basant Avenue, Amritsar. The investigation revealed that Collins had come to India in 2023 for his son’s medical treatment and stayed back illegally after his son returned to Nigeria. Operating primarily from Mehrauli area in Delhi, he built a network in northern India to supply cocaine using WhatsApp for coordination. His primary clientele included affluent individuals and the drug was sold for as much as Rs 20,000 per gram. The cocaine was either directly delivered by Collins or collected through associates like Akhlesh. The police recovered 112 grams of cocaine and a .32 bore pistol during the operation.

In the second case, three persons Gurpreet Singh, Ravi Kumar, alias Jaggu, and Shyam Singh, alias Rahul, were arrested for their involvement in heroin smuggling and handling of hawala drug money. Ravi Kumar and Shyam Singh had established links with Pakistani drug smugglers and used pre-arranged pickup spots to collect heroin. Gurpreet Singh, who runs a meat cart in his village, operated a hawala network using a token system to collect and transfer drug money. The police recovered Rs 8.10 lakh from him. The hawala money was routed to Pakistan via Dubai, exposing a well-organised cross-border financial channel. Both Ravi Kumar and Shyam Singh have previous criminal records.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar stated that the arrests and seizures were made possible by DCP (Investigations) Ravinder Pal Singh, ADCP Jagbinder Singh, and ACP Yadvinder Singh. The operations were carried out by Inspector Amolakdeep Singh, in-charge of CIA Staff-1, Amritsar, and his team.