Punjab: Gang of drug smugglers busted, six in police custody
Punjab: A gang of Indian smugglers linked with Pakistan-based smugglers who used to smuggle heroin across the international border using drones has been busted. Chhatargarh (Rajasthan) police today said six suspects from Hanumangarh and Fazilka districts have been arrested in this connection. They have been identified as Mastan Singh, a resident of Fatehpur, his son Pragat Singh, a resident of Sangaria in Hanumangarh, Baldev Singh, Amrik Singh and Harbhajan Singh, all residents of Jodha Bhaini village in Jalalabad and Mohinder Singh, a resident of Muhar Khiva village in Fazilka. According to police, a packet of heroin was recovered during a search after a damaged drone of Pakistani smugglers was found in the BSF’s Neelkanth outpost area.
The packet contained about 2.1 kg of heroin, worth about Rs 10 crore in the international market. The suspects had reached the Neelkanth border outpost area to receive the consignment but managed to escape without the packet after sensing the presence of police. Four of these smugglers were caught by the police in Punjab the very next day, who have now been handed over to the Rajasthan Police. Later, the police arrested two more of their associates. All of them have been sent to police custody for questioning after being produced in the court today. Police sources said that a farmer saw a drone lying in the field in the Indian border. On his information, police and BSF officials reached the spot. The drone was quite large, with six-seven cameras and sensors installed. The flying capacity of this China-made drone was found to be 9 kilometers. On finding the drone, the police, BSF and intelligence agencies conducted a search operation in the entire area and later a packet was found lying in a field three-four kilometers from the international border. The packet contained two bags of heroin, each containing one kg of heroin. According to police and BSF sources, 2021 and 2022 were written on the white cloth bag. The name of a person named Bashir was written in Urdu on the bag, who is said to be a drug smuggler from Pakistan.
