Punjab: Drug syndicate busted, 10 smugglers arrested

Punjab: The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of Punjab Police has busted a major drug smuggling gang by arresting 10 people in a joint operation with a central agency, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Saturday. The arrested persons have been identified as Chandan Sharma, Akash Sharma, Vishal Singh, Arvinder Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Rinku Thapar, Bharat, Divyam, Pratham and Ankush Bhatti. Police teams have also seized 1 kg heroin, 381 grams of hashish, three pistols including a state-of-the-art Glock pistol, 62 live cartridges and two empty shells, drug money worth Rs 48.7 lakh, 262 grams of gold and electronic devices from their possession.

He said the police also found a hidden cupboard in the house of accused Lovepreet where he used to hide all the smuggled narcotics and hawala money. The DGP said the suspects were running a drug network in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. He said that the investigation revealed that after smuggling drugs across the border, they used to send money to Pakistan-based smugglers through hawala. He said that the investigation was carried out in an advanced manner using technical surveillance and human intelligence, which reflects the strategic approach of ANTF in dealing with complex criminal networks. He said that further investigation is going on in the case and more arrests are also likely in the case. Sharing more details, ANTF Special DGP Kuldeep Singh said that preliminary investigation has revealed that Lovepreet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was the key person managing the entire drug network of the syndicate.