Peddlers devise novel ways for smuggling from across border

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 20

With the tightening of security at the Indo-Pak border, smugglers across the barbed fencing are devising new ways to sneak in the contraband. In a joint operation on Sunday, personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized heroin stuffed in a plastic water pipe.

“This is for the first that this modus operandi has come to light. The 30 feet green plastic pipe with 1 inch diametre was half buried in long wild growth across the barbed fence,” informed Sachin Guleriya, Superintendent, NCB. He said it appeared that the pipe stuffed with high quality heroin was dumped there around a week ago. The agricultural land where it was found has been abandoned and we are looking into the ownership of the said land, he said.

Recently, in a similar incident, small heroin packets concealed in rubber balloons to secure it from water were found in Khemkaran. Similarly, plastic bottles were used to smuggle contraband using cross-border irrigation network. The bottles are attached with a string so that the smuggler on the other side can pull the bottles out using plastic irrigation pipes attached with tube wells.

In the recent past, many instances have come to light wherein Indian smugglers used hollow iron bars to attach the same to tractor trailers for smuggling heroin.

A BSF official, wishing not to be named, said that it had become difficult for smugglers to slip in drugs due to heightened security at the international border. Since smuggling packets weighing 1 kg has become almost impossible, peddlers nowadays prefer small packets which are easy to throw across the fence or conceal at designated spots for retrieval by their counterparts later on. Besides, sending smaller quantities through different methods means lesser the loss in case the security agencies manage to confiscate it, he added.

He said the BSF had maintained tight security at every corner of the border, including water channels, to thwart attempts of smuggling and nefarious activists of anti-national elements in Pakistan.

Similar cases

• Small heroin packets concealed in rubber balloons to secure it from water have been found in Khemkaran. 
• Plastic bottles have been used to smuggle contraband using cross-border irrigation network. The bottles are attached with a string so that the smuggler on the other side can pull the bottles out using plastic irrigation pipes attached with tube wells.