Dubai-based drug racket busted, six accused arrested by Nurpur police

Nurpur district police have busted a Dubai-based drug racket and arrested six drug smuggling accused. Around Rs 1.20 crore cash, 1.093 kilogram gold and 99.45-gram silver jewellery have been recovered. Besides, five bank accounts worth Rs 52.52 lakh opened by the main accused in the names of his relatives have been frozen.

As per Nurpur district police information, the kingpins of this drug racket are Lakhvinder Singh and his son Vishal, alias Shallu, of Bhadroya under Damtal police jurisdiction. Vishal had been arrested by Nurpur police on February 1, 2023 after recovery of over 1kg heroin and Rs 1.04 crore drug-earned money. During a trial he had been bailed out by the state high court. Ever since he was bailed out he has been absconding. He allegedly fled to Dubai from where he coordinated with his father Lakhvinder Singh, establishing an international drug supply network.

Initially, Damtal police on October 27 last year had arrested Kanwal Jeet of Chheharta in Amritsar district with a commercial quantity of 262-gram heroin. He was suspected to be the main drug supplier in this interstate border area. Police conducted a thorough investigation of this case registered under section 21 of the NDPS Act. The investigation and interrogation of the drug smuggling accused had unearthed this international drug racket which led to arrests of six members of this racket.

After arresting Raj Kumar, alias Sethi of Bhadroya on April 13 (against whom six cases of NDPS Act and Indian Arms Act had already been registered) the police arrested five members of this drug racket within one week.

SP Nurpur Ashok Ratan stated that the main kingpin Dubai-based Vishal used to smuggle heroin through an established network either through drone dropping at Amritsar or other means of transport. “Rajesh Kumar of Arjun Nagar, Chheharta (Amritsar) another accused arrested on April 8, used to collect contraband from Amritsar and deliver it to accused Kamaljeet of Arjun Nagar, Chheharta who worked as a courier in this drug network. Kamaljeet was delivering synthetic drugs at different locations in Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Nurpur districts as directed by Vishal from Dubai. The drug smuggling racket named ‘Shallu-Balli’ was resorting to virtual network platform for exchanging information of drug trafficking to its members to avoid concrete circumstantial evidence,” he said.

He said the police would initiate financial investigation of all properties amassed by the accused through this illegal trade and try to bring back Vihal Shallu from Dubai.

The SP said the preliminary investigation revealed that arrested accused Lakhvinder Singh was accumulating drug earned money in this illegal trade and kept huge amount of cash and precious jewellery with another arrested accused (goldsmith) Gagan Sarna of Saingarh in Pathankot as safe haven.

“The police conducted a raid at his house on April 16 and recovered Rs 1.15 crore’s cash and 1.25 kg gold jewellery from him. Apart from this, the police have also arrested Mohit Singh, alias Tony, a 15-year-old aide of Gagan of Sunder Nagar at Pathankot and recovered Rs 4.90 lakh cash and 67.93 gram gold and 95.45 gram silver jewellery,” he said.