Narcotics smuggling goes on in Punjab's border areas, security agencies 'clueless'

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur/Pathankot, January 31

Ahead of Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s visit to frontier villages tomorrow, the police and the BSF remain busy grappling with the problem of increasing smuggling of arms and drugs through drones from across the border.

“All a smuggler has to do is to send his location from India to his Pakistani handlers from his mobile phone. Within minutes, a drone arrives and drops the contraband at precisely the site from where the location has been sent,” said an SSP-rank officer.

In mid-December, in the jurisdiction of the Kalanaur police station, a drone made its presence felt four times in five days. It dropped heroin packets at a pre-decided place, in this case a tubewell. From this point, the contraband was collected by a ‘carrier’, a person who ferries drugs from one point to the other for a financial consideration and the amount varies from

Rs 2- 3 lakh per consignment.

The ‘carriers’ follow instructions from their Pakistani handlers and hand over the contraband to a person whose identity is not known even to them.

This person, who is a part of a group of smugglers, is responsible for the drug supply to various parts of India.

In the Kalanaur case, the investigation of the ‘carrier’ reached a dead-end. This was because the Pakistani handlers make certain that the ‘carrier’ and the person responsible for the dope’s onward transportation remain unknown to each other. The Gurdaspur police were able to detect only two of the mid-December drone flights. In the last few days, the police have started conducting raids in border villages which have become infamous for housing ‘carriers’.

3-kg heroin seized

Ferozepur: The BSF on Tuesday seized three-kg heroin near Mabboke border outpost. After BSF personnel found crawling marks in the area, they started a search operation and found a polythene bag, which contained three packets of heroin weighing one kg each. OC

VDCs activated ahead of Governor’s visit

• Keeping in view the Governor’s visit, Village Defence Committees (VDCs) have been being activated in the area
• Gurdaspur SSP Deepak Hilori said such committees have been established in 128 villages across the district
• “Their job is to inform the police about a drone sighting,” he said

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