Delhi a hub of heroin smuggling, says police

Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 17

The Delhi Police recently apprehended drug smugglers with 83 kg heroin. During interrogation it was revealed that the contraband was brought in Delhi to use in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Expecting strict security in the coming days, they were working rapidly and storing the contraband as they had to supply it to various places and Delhi is the transit point.

A senior police official said in most of the cases it has come to fore that the heroin is brought in India from Pakistan through Bangladesh and Myanmar, said DCP PS Kushwah.

Here in India, it is refined and smuggled to other countries. The opium farming areas have become the rest houses of the heroin smugglers. In some parts of Bareilly (UP) and Manipur (Northeast), government cultivates opium for medicinal purpose, he said.

The drug smugglers use the opium to make heroin. The Special Cell disclosed that some gangs are operating from Bareilly and Manipur and some of the smugglers have been arrested from these places. In fact, the cost of heroin is high, therefore people get trapped in smuggling for sake good profit, the DCP said.

Some of the foreign smugglers are also involved in it. They manage to send drugs to America, Myanmar, Middle East and other countries through courier services, the DCP said.

The official said the money received by this trade reaches to terrorist organisations. The smugglers sitting in Pakistan and Afghanistan use this money in terrorist activities, especially in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, he added. 

The terrorist organisations are paid through 'hawala' and internet. In most of the cases, it is found that smugglers are active in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. 

In 2018, the Delhi Police exposed 25 such smugglers and confiscated 275 kg heroin, the DCP said. Nearly, 60 people have been arrested this year till March and around 100 kg heroin has been seized.