War against drugs: Punjab police arrest 16,360 smugglers in one year, seize 1221-kg heroin

Chandigarh, July 17

As the decisive war against drugs waged to root out the menace of drugs completing a year, Punjab Police have arrested as many as 16,360 drug smugglers including 2,351 big fish since July 5, 2022. The police have registered a total of 12,218 first information reports (FIRs) of which 1,458 are related to commercial quantity.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill said the police teams have recovered 1073.44-kg heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas besides laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. Additionally, 147.5-kg heroin was recovered by the teams of Punjab Police from seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 1220.94 kg in just one year, he said.

Apart from seizing big-haul of heroin, the IGP said that police have also recovered 797.14-kg opium, 902.13-kg ganja, 375.47 quintals of poppy husk, and 65.49 lakhs tablets/ capsules/ injections/ vials of pharma opioids from across the state. The police have also recovered Rs 12.33 crore of drug money from the possession of drug smugglers arrested in the span of the last one year.

Gill said that Punjab Police have also forfeited properties of 66 big smugglers worth Rs 26.72 crore during the last year. Barnala district remains on top where 13 properties worth Rs 2.34 crore were forfeited, followed by 9 properties worth Rs 1.72 crore forfeited by Fazilka district and 6 properties worth Rs 1.13 by Malerkotla district, he said.

Apart from this, IGP Sukhchain Singh Gill said that the law and order situation in the state has also witnessed a significant improvement. The official data from July 5, 2022, to July 16, 2023, reveals that the Punjab Police have busted 18 terror modules with the arrest of 143 terrorist/radicals after recovering 31 rifles, 209 revolvers/pistols, 5 tiffin improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 6.78 kg RDX and other explosives, 10 hand grenades, one sleeve of disposed rocket launcher, 51 drones, and one loaded rocket propelled grenade.

Similarly, the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), since its formation on April 6, 2022, has succeeded in busting 208 gangster/criminal modules after arresting 688 gangsters/criminals and neutralising five, after recovering 667 weapons, 157 vehicles used in criminal activities. Pertinently, immediately after coming to power, CM Bhagwant Mann-led state government formed a special Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) headed by ADGP Promod Ban to wipe out gangsters from the state. 

Pertinently, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab Gaurav Yadav had given strict instructions to all the CPs/SSPs to investigate backward and forward linkages minutely in each and every case, especially related to drug recoveries, even if they recover a meagre amount of drugs.

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#Punjab Police