Narco-hawala cartel busted; 3 operatives of Turkey-based smuggler nabbed

In a major crackdown on international narco-hawala cartel, Amritsar Commissionerate Police have busted a drug cartel linked to Turkey-based smuggler Navpreet Singh alias Nav Bhullar by arresting his three operatives here on Monday.

Those arrested were identified as Gurdeep Singh alias Saab, Pardeep Sharma and Mani Sharma. The police seized 1.01 kg heroin, a total of Rs 1.06 crore hawala money, a cash counting machine and a car from them.

“Out of total money seized, Rs 84.02 lakh was in cash while Rs 22 lakh was by way of frozen bank accounts,” said DGP Gaurav yadav on X.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that as per preliminary investigations, Gurdeep was operating the local network on Bhullar's directions. Bhullar had provided him a hideout apart from logistics support for running the cartel from Amritsar.

He said that a case under the NDPS Act was registered and further probe was on to trace backward and forward linkages of the cartel.