Punjab cops track fiscal trail of drug smugglers, bust 3 hawala modules

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, September 11

In a rare exposure of the system of payments to drug smugglers, the Punjab Police have established a financial trail of three modules, which were collectively sending over Rs 2 crore drug money daily to smugglers based in Pakistan and Afghanistan via the hawala network in Dubai, Canada and the US.

The Tarn Taran police have arrested 13 persons, including three managers of these modules. One of the modules was being run by a suspended jawan of the BSF. Four delivery-cum-collection agents have been arrested in multiple operations in the past three weeks.

Drug money sent via Dubai, Canada, US

• The modules were sending over Rs 2 cr drug money daily to smugglers in Pak & Afghanistan via hawala network in Dubai, Canada & US
• These modules attracted youth working with food delivery services or courier agencies with the lure of better salary
• Their job was to drop packets at scheduled locations or give these to agents; also collected currency packets from bus drivers

Questioning of the accused and seizure of data from diaries, phones and computers have provided the police several contacts of the accused in India and abroad. “The contacts and account details in the diaries, computers and phones are in such large number that it seems a mind-boggling exercise to probe further. It was always a challenge for us to break the financial network of the smugglers,” said Tarn Taran SSP GS Chauhan.

These modules attracted youngsters working with food delivery services or courier agencies with better salary. The job of the agents was to drop packets at a scheduled location or hand these over to other agents. They also collected packets of currency notes from bus drivers. “We set on the financial trail after catching a person, who had come to collect a drug packet dropped by a drone from Pakistan near the International Border. We were curious to know how the payment was made and focused on this system,” said the SSP.

The police learnt that the smugglers, after the delivery the drugs, would send a photo of a Rs 10 currency note to the recipient of the drugs. They also sent a phone number of a person who would call at a given time to collect the payment. The persons would match the Rs 10 currency note for confirmation and the money exchanged hands. The smugglers also used bus or truck drivers to send money.

Chauhan said once the money reached the manager or the boss of the module, he would send it to the US, Canada and Dubai for further transfer to Pakistan. “The module bosses run business as a front office. They deal in export and import of rice, pulses and dry fruits to and from Dubai and Afghanistan. They send money through over-invoicing of a commodity or through hawala channels,” he said.

Vinay Aggarwal from Amritsar is one of the “big fish” hawala operators arrested by the police. He has also served a sentence for drug smuggling and took to financial management after his release. The police found that he had done business transactions of about Rs 80 crore in the past few weeks only. He, along with his son and a collection agent, was arrested.

The second module is run by a businessmen, Naveen Bhatia (absconding), who had further employed two Wadhwan brothers and their cousin, all of whom belong to Madhya Pradesh and have taken houses on rent in Amritsar. The police have nabbed the two brothers – Shashank Wadhwan and Abhishek, and their first cousin Neeraj. Three collection agents — Pamma, Lovepreet and Sukhwinder — belong to Panjwar and Ghurinda, and have been arrested. This module used to send money in packets to different places via bus drivers. Two collection agents were nabbed from Kharar and another two from Ludhiana when they came to collect the packets.