Cross-border arms, drug racket busted

The police have dismantled a cross-border arms and narcotics smuggling module with the arrest of five operatives and recovered six sophisticated pistols, 115 g of heroin and Rs 11.90 lakh in drug money from their possession here on Monday.

Those arrested have been identified as Simaranjeet Singh alias Mannu (24), Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi (20), Sukhraj Singh alias Joga (24) and Sajan Singh alias Gursajan Singh alias Ladda, all residents of village Roda Wala Kalan in Amritsar; and Molakdeep Singh (23), a resident of village Ranike in Amritsar.

The recovered pistols include two 9mm Glock pistols made in Austria, one Zigana pistol, made in Turkey, besides a .32 bore and .30 bore pistol along with 10 live cartridges. Police teams have also impounded their Hyundai Creta car, which they were using for smuggling.

Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested accused were actively linked to a cross-border smuggling network and were receiving arms and narcotics consignments via drones from across the border. Further investigation is on to establish the forward and backward linkages of the accused in the case, he said.

Sharing operational details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that acting on credible and secret information regarding cross-border smuggling links, police teams have arrested Simranjeet alias Mannu, Molakdeep Singh, Gurpreet alias Gopi, Sukhraj alias Joga and Sajan alias Gursajan alias Ladda, along with a car and recovered two .32 bore pistols from their possession. During further interrogation, additional recoveries were made, leading to the seizure of four more pistols, 115 gram of heroin and Rs 11.90 lakh in drug money, indicating their involvement in organised illegal arms and narcotics activities, he said.

The Police Commissioner said that the probe has revealed that the arrested accused, Simaranjeet alias Mannu, Molakdeep Singh and Gurpreet Singh, are repeat offenders and were earlier involved in cases under the NDPS Act.