Massive operation in Punjab to snap drug supply chain

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 31

The Punjab Police are carrying out a massive cordon and search operation (CASO) across the state to tackle drugs. Under focus are 125 sites, identified as havens for smugglers and addicts — the first such mapping of drugs ever. 

Not just nakas, border areas, bus terminals, railway stations and airports, the police have spread deep into the hinterland and in cities, searching homes, fields and riverine belts along the border with Himachal Pradesh from where smugglers are known to flee to the hill state during raids. “CASO is our special project to get to the root of the problem,” says DGP Dinkar Gupta. The move, initiated in June, has picked up pace in  the past two weeks.

Along with teams of the Special Task Force (STF), district police teams are going door-to-door, also covering isolated houses in border belts, slums and downtown areas frequented by addicts. As many as 663 persons have been arrested and 406 FIRs filed so far. On Tuesday, the Ferozepur police found 2 kg heroin in a plastic bottle near the banks of a river in Nihala Kilcha village along the Pakistan border. 

The DGP says the raids are neither random, nor a shot in the dark. “These are information-based. We have received immense cooperation from the people. They have come out to inform us about hideouts in their areas.”

Intelligence reports are being prepared on the basis of clues provided by the public on helpline 181. 

“We receive about 25-30 calls every day,” say officials. The name of the informer is kept confidential. “The police act on complaints after due verification,” they say, adding they received 1,930 tips/information on this helpline in the past two months. 

The information is processed and subsequently the raids are planned, many of which have yielded big recoveries. Nearly 40 complaints have been converted into FIRs. A clue from the public last month led to the recovery of 4.5 kg of heroin from Tarn Taran. Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Amneet Kondal says these raids are not about the quantity of recovery, but about breaking the drug supply chain. “It was not easy. It took time to win the trust of the public. After a series of meetings, they gradually opened up, providing the police with valuable inputs on specific areas where the peddlers and addicts meet.

“We came across a retired government employee, whose both sons are hooked on drugs.The leg of one of them had to be amputated. We are trying to rehabilitate the brothers,” she says.

 On Sunday, 800 cops from Mansa recovered 227 gm heroin and 15 kg ganja and other intoxicants from various places and arrested 20 persons. Prior to that on June 29, the Customs made the biggest ever recovery of 532 kg of heroin and 52 kg of another narcotic at the Attari check post in Amritsar. “Every drug addict has to be monitored daily. The questioning of most peddlers reveal they are addicts too. 

The work is monstrous. Studies show 12.5 lakh persons in the state are addicts. It is not easy to wean them away. Police can cut the supply but smugglers always find a way to reach addicts,” says the DGP.

Will cooperate, says Kangra SP 

Dharamsala, July 31

There has been a spurt in cases registered under the NDPS Act in Kangra district — 270 so far this year,  the highest-ever. As many as 311 drug peddlers, including 42 women,  have been arrested in the district. 

Kangra SP Vimukt Ranjan says, “We will cooperate with Punjab Police.” The Kangra police have nabbed 90 per cent peddlers from areas bordering Pathankot. The Himachal police say most synthetic drugs are coming from Punjab and J&K. 

Rakesh Pathania, BJP MLA from Nurpur, has been demanding a police district be set up in Nurpur.  — TNS