Punjab Police seize heroin worth Rs 100 crore, nab two smugglers

Busting a big drug syndicate suspected of being operated by notorious gangsters lodged in jails, the Punjab Police have seized 20 kg of heroin worth 100 crore rupees in the international market and arrested two drug smugglers in Kapurthala on Monday.

Chandigarh:Busting a big drug syndicate suspected of being operated by notorious gangsters lodged in jails, the Punjab Police have seized 20 kg of heroin worth 100 crore rupees in the international market and arrested two drug smugglers in Kapurthala on Monday.

The two drug suppliers have been identified as Balwinder Singh of village Sarangwal Hoshiarpur and Peter Masih of Basti Danishmanda locality of Jalandhar. Peter has already been facing two criminal cases.

DGP Punjab Dinkar Gupta said that when Police teams intercepted a truck and a Hyundai i20 car at a high-tech Dhilwan Police police post in Kapurthala on Monday, the search of the vehicle led to the recovery of 20 kg heroin consignment.

The DGP Dinkar Gupta added that the drivers of vehicles were signalled to stop at the checkpoint by the police party, but the occupants tried to flee. However, the alert cops managed to nab them after a brief chase. The police recovered 20 packets of heroin (one kg each) from their possession. HS Khakh, SSP Kapurthala, added that two special cavities had been created in the roof of the driver's cabin of the truck by the drug suppliers to conceal the consignment during transportation.

DGP Dinkar Gupta added during preliminary investigations, the drug dealers disclosed that the heroin consignment was being smuggled from Purmara Mandi in Srinagar by Balwinder Singh in a truck bearing registration number HR-55K-2510 and Peter Masih collected the consignment from him. The DGP said that a narco-gangster angle is being suspected in the case as the investigations carried out so far had indicated that Peter Masih had been sent to collect the consignment by Gaggandeep, brother of the notorious gangster Rajnish Kumar of Preet Phagwara.

The police will produce the arrested drug smugglers before the magistrate and will seek further police remand for further investigations to unearth the drug network.