CHANDIGARH, July 18:
Amid the ongoing war against drugs, Punjab Police in two inter-state operations conducted last week has managed to effectively recover 147.5Kg heroin from states including Gujarat and Maharashtra. These two recoveries are in addition to the 7.89Kg heroin recovered in the state last week, taking the commutative quantity of heroin to 155.39Kg, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill here on Monday.
Notably, In a joint operation with ATS Gujarat on July 12, Punjab Police recovered 75Kg Heroin from a container at Mundra Port in Gujarat, while, in a similar operation with Maharashtra Police on July 15, 72.5Kg heroin was recovered from a container at the Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai.
Addressing his weekly Press Conference on Drug Recovery, the IGP said that Punjab Police have arrested 565 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 453 first information reports (FIRs), including 34 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last one week.
He said that with Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann having given the Punjab Police a free hand and full liberty to wage war against drugs, extensive anti-drug drives have been launched to combat the menace of drugs from the border State of Punjab.
Apart from recovering a big-haul of heroin, the Police have also recovered Rs 16.29 lakhs of drug money, 15Kg opium, 37Kg ganja, 16 quintals of poppy husk, and 64000 intoxicant pills/capsules among other drugs after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. As many as 10 Proclaimed offenders and absconders in NDPS cases have also been arrested in the past week, he added.
Talking about the trends in drug smuggling, IGP Sukhchain Gill said that to prevent themselves from arrest, drug smugglers nowadays are preferring to smuggle the drug ‘on foot’. He said that drug smugglers also prefer to sell drugs in small quantities to ensure that even if they are caught their case should not be considered as commercial. “Instead of concealing drug consignments at their houses, they have been using ponds and fields as safe storage for concealing drugs to avoid recovery during raids,” he said.
He said that following the disclosures of the arrested drug smugglers that the supply of drugs is either from the area of villages Shanni-Beli in Himachal Pradesh, adjoining Pathankot or from neighboring Kathua district of J&K, Border district SSPs have been asked to work in closer coordination with these neighboring state Police.
The IGP said that a new modus operandi was also noticed in Malerkotla where a drug smuggler identified as Rohit Sahi alias Goldy of Amargarh camouflaged in Army Uniform was found selling heroin. Police had also recovered 50Gms heroin from his car, he said.
Meanwhile, the DGP has strictly ordered all the CPs/SSPs to further tighten the noose around the drug smugglers by identifying all top drug smugglers and the hotspots infamous for drug smuggling in their jurisdictions and launching a combing operation to nab all those selling/smuggling drugs. He also directed the Police chiefs to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.
