M A I N   N E W S

NRI couple nabbed, 3.7 kg heroin seized
Air India flight was headed to Toronto via Birmingham
Varinder Walia and Ashok Sethi
Tribune Reporters

Amritsar, October 5
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) today nabbed an old NRI couple on board Air India flight 187 to Toronto via Birmingham at the Amritsar airport and seized 3.73 kg heroin from them.

High alert and heavy security notwithstanding, the couple boarded the flight as DRI officers were on the trail and the flight was to take off in a minute. Air India sources said officers of the DRI alerted the pilot who had just started the engine at 9.05 am. The flight was recalled to the parking lot.

Airport and Customs security ringed the aircraft and requested the passengers to disembark and the baggage deplaned for search.

The seizure has shown frailties of highly sophisticated detection equipments, including ION scanners, making the airport vulnerable to smuggling. More than 60 weekly international and domestic flights operate from this airport and smuggling of drugs to Canada has become hot.

The Nakodar-based couple, Harinder Kaur Nagra (53) and Raminder Singh Nagra (67), who were booked to Toronto, had reportedly concealed the packets in the check-in baggage loaded in the loft. The drugs were hidden in a specially built cavity in the suitcase which had remained undetected by the Customs authorities at the airport.

DRI sources said they had been keeping surveillance on a group of smugglers trying to sneak out heroin to Canada and were able to zero in on this couple that was allegedly party to a larger gang of drug smugglers.

The DRI team landed at the airport just in time to stop the flight. They ordered complete rechecking of the passengers and the baggage.

Earlier, the DRI had arrested a senior Youth Akali Dal leader Parshotam Lal Sondhi of Jalandhar and seized 23 kg heroin from the vicinity of the airport. In another big haul, the DRI had caught 54 kg heroin last month.

Meanwhile, the flight was delayed by 1.50 hours and all passengers were allowed to board, except the couple who had been detained and was being grilled by the Customs division of the DRI.