Inter-state drug cartel operating from UP busted by Punjab police

The accused had been illegally supplying these opioid pharmaceutical drugs to some of the districts in Punjab, including Fatehgarh Sahib, SAS Nagar, SBS Nagar, Rupnagar, Patiala and Ludhiana for the past five years.

Chandigarh: The Punjab police has busted an inter-state pharmaceutical drug cartel after making a big seizure of over seven lakh tablets/capsules/injections of pharma opioids during a raid at an illegal storage godown in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district. The police have also arrested the main supplier identified as Ashish Vishkarma, a resident of Khalasi Line near ITC in UP's Saharanpur.

The accused had been illegally supplying these opioid pharmaceutical drugs to some of the districts in Punjab, including Fatehgarh Sahib, SAS Nagar, SBS Nagar, Rupnagar, Patiala and Ludhiana for the past five years. The development came amid the ongoing war against drugs launched by the Punjab police under the directive of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ropar Range Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that the police recovered 4.98 lakh tablets of Lomotil, 97,200 tablets of Alprazolam, 75,840 of Proxyvon capsules, 21,600 vials of Avil, 16,725 injections of Buprenorphine and 550 tablets of Tramadol. He said that as part of the investigations into the recovery of 175 injections of Buprenorphine and 175 vials of Avil from two persons identified as Sukhwinder Singh alias Kala and Harjaspreet Singh alias Jassa, both residents of Chamkaur Sahib on July 14, 2022, police teams from Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Sirhind led by Incharge Inspector Amarbir Singh conducted a raid at the storage godown in the presence of local Uttar Pradesh police.

SSP Fatehgarh Sahib Ravjot Grewal on Friday late evening said that the arrested person has been brought to Punjab after completing all the legal formalities. She said that DSP Investigations Jaspinder Singh Gill and DSP Bassi Pathana Amritpal Singh played a vital role in the execution of this operation. The FIR under sections 22C-61-85 of the NDPS Act had already been registered at Badali Ala Singh Police Station in Fatehgarh Sahib and further investigations into the case are on. The accused was wanted by the Fatehgarh police in at least four commercial cases registered under the NDPS Act at Police Stations including Amloh, Sirhind, Badali Ala Singh and Khamano. (With agency inputs)