Three drug peddlers sent to police custody

The Ajnala court has sent three drug peddlers arrested by the Amritsar rural police on Thursday to police custody for four days.

Ranjit Singh, alias Rana, of Lopoke here, Gurdev Singh, alias Gedi, of Khakhriana village in Kapurthala and Shailendra Singh, alias Selu, of Bharatpur district in Rajasthan were arrested by the Special Cell with 500-gm heroin, Rs 33 lakh of Hawala money, and a 9-mm Glock pistol with two magazines.

SSP, Amritsar Rural Police, Maninder Singh said during a preliminary probe, it was found that the crossborder drug racket was being operated by Rajwinder Singh, alias Raja, of Dhattal village who had escaped to foreign shores over a year ago.

On his instructions, Shailendra Singh had come to receive the drug and weapon consignment from Ranjit Singh and Gurdev Singh.

The police had got a specific input that Shailendra had arrived for receiving the consignment of drugs from two other traffickers. Following this, the special cell team led by SI Satinder Singh immediately swung into action and arrested the accused leading to the recovery.

A case was registered at the Lopoke police station here and efforts are underway to trace the forward and backward linkages of this cross-border smuggling network, he said. He said Ranjit’s interrogation could lead to more drug seizures.