ED arrests kingpin of international narcotics syndicate from Jalandhar

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has arrested a Punjab-based kingpin of an international narcotics syndicate.

The accused, Akshay Chhabra, was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on April 2 from Jalandhar, the federal probe agency said in a statement. He is currently in ED custody.

As per the ED, Chhabra was the kingpin of an international drug syndicate being run from Ludhiana in Punjab. The agency had raided his residence in October last year.

"He managed to import drugs from Afghanistan in the name of shell/fake entities and supplied them further," the ED said in the statement.

"Huge proceeds of crime were generated out of this illegal drug trade, which were infused in immovable properties, liquor business, and transferred out of India through different hawala channels," the ED said.

The money laundering case against Chhabra and his associates stems from a complaint lodged by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), alleging that 20.32 kg of heroin was seized from his possession sometime back.

Chhabra and his associates were involved in the manufacturing and sale of illicit drugs; they used to process smuggled morphine/raw heroin through two Afghanistan nationals and distributed the processed heroin to various drug dealers, the ED had said in a statement last year.