18 kg heroin seized, 3 smugglers arrested

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Gurdaspur, July 27

The Gurdaspur police have busted a heroin smuggling gang the operations of which were being controlled from the US.

The cops seized 18 kg pure-grade heroin worth Rs 80 crore from three persons, including a woman having links in Croatia, from a check-post set up near Paniar sugar mill in a midnight manoeuver.

Senior officials say this is the biggest seizure of narcotics ever since Batala was carved out as separate police district from Gurdaspur in 1988. The gang’s operations were being controlled by one Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal in the US. The cops did not disclose the name of the city where he was based saying it could hamper the investigation.

Dhaliwal was in touch with the troika on hourly basis. When the cops arrested accused Vikramjeet Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Sandeep Kaur, they were getting regular calls from Dhaliwal. “He was unaware that they were in our custody,” said SSP Harish Dayama.

The help of RAW and IB is being taken to identify the exact city from where Dhaliwal operates in the US.

The operation was conducted by ASP Aditya Warrier, DSP Sukhpal Singh Randhawa and CIA in-charge Kapil Kaushal.

The accused were coming from Srinagar after collecting the consignment (packed in 18 bags) in their Swift car. Since the police had prior information that the accused would try to push in narcotics in Gurdaspur district on the intervening night of July 26 and 27, they established check posts at various places, including Paniar.

Accused Vikramjeet told the police he often went to Srinagar to bring narcotics. “He would later hand these over to his handlers, either in Amritsar or Gurdaspur,” said the SSP. He also informed the cops that Dhaliwal was their handler and he would be in regular touch with them “whenever they would be on their smuggling trips”.

Handler operated from US

• Gurdaspur cops seized 18 kg heroin worth Rs 80 crore from three persons, including a woman having links in Croatia
• The gang’s operations were being controlled by one Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal from the United States
• Those arrsted were getting messages from Dhaliwal even while they were in police custody