Drug racket run from jail exposed, 4.5-kg heroin worth Rs 22.5 cr seized

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 8

The Special Task Force (STF) wing of Ludhiana claimed to have busted a major network of heroin smuggling which was being run from the Central Jail, here. Two inmates lodged in the jail were running the racket and the Jail Department failed to check the same. The seized heroin was said to be supplied by counterparts of the nabbed smugglers from Pakistan.

The racket got exposed after the STF team arrested Harmandeep Singh, alias Deep, (31), a resident of Sarin near Dehlon, accomplice of the two jail inmates, and seized 4.5 kg of heroin from his possession. The value of the heroin in the international market is said to be Rs 22.5 crore. The police also recovered Rs 1.40 lakh cash, proceeds of drug sale.

STF AIG Snehdeep Sharma, DSP Davinder Chaudhary, and Inspector Harbans Singh issued a joint statement in this regard.

The STF officials said a tip-off was received that Harmandeep was into heroin smuggling and he was on the way to deliver the drug in his Honda City car (bearing registration no. PB10FS6900) from Atam Park to the Bharat Nagar chowk. The police team laid a naka at a strategic place where the car was intercepted. Later, when the vehicle was searched, 4.5 kg of heroin and Rs 1.40 lakh drug money were seized from the vehicle.

The STF officials said during preliminary questioning, the suspect confessed that he was supplying heroin on the directions of jailed inmates, Goldy and Amandeep. Both of them were lodged in the jail in a case of recovery of huge quantity of drug. He had been supplying heroin to clients of both inmates by coordinating with them over phone. Harmandeep said he used to hand over proceeds of the drug sale to accomplices of the two inmates.

Links with Pak smugglers to be investigated

AIG Snehdeep said a preliminary probe revealed that the quality of heroin leads to suspicion that it would have been supplied from the Pakistan side through the international border route by counterparts of the jailed suspects. The STF will bring the inmates on production warrant so that the angle of cross border smuggling could be verified and further layers of network be busted.

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