Two held with 10kg heroin

The police have busted a trans-border narco-smuggling module with the arrest of two habitual offenders, who were earlier caught in 2015 with two Pakistani nationals. The arrested accused have been identified as Sukhdev Singh (60), a resident of Talwani Bharath village in Batala, and Avtar Singh, alias Tari (45), a resident of Baghiari village in Amritsar. The police also impounded their Toyota Etios car used for transporting heroin.

Gaurav Yadav, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, said the police recovered 10 kg of heroin from Sukhdev Singh and Avtar Singh, alias Tari. As per information, two Pakistani nationals had crossed border in 2015 to deliver the 19.5 kg of heroin to Sukhdev and Avtar. The accused had also provided shelter to Pakistani nationals at their house. The police had arrested all four accused after recovering 2.5 kg of heroin, Rs 65 lakh drug money, one pistol and one rifle from them. Sukhdev came out of jail last year, while Avtar was released from prison in September this year.

The DGP said preliminary investigations revealed that after coming out of jail, Sukhdev and Avtar again contacted Pakistan-based smugglers and managed to retrieve at least three consignments of heroin dropped through drones in the last few months.

Sharing operation details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said based on reliable intelligence inputs, a police team from the CIA staff-1 led by Inspector Amolakdeep Singh apprehended both the accused near Mullechak village at Sua Bridge, while they were enroute to supply heroin to another smuggler in their car, he said. A case was registered at the Gate Hakima police station, he added.