Drug syndicate busted, 10 smugglers arrested
The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of the Punjab Police in a joint operation with a central agency busted a major drug-trafficking syndicate with the arrest of 10 persons, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Saturday.
Those arrested were identified as Chandan Sharma, Akash Sharma, Vishal Singh, Arvinder Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Rinku Thapar, Bharat, Divyam, Pratham and Ankush Bhatti.
Police teams also seized 1 kg heroin, 381 gm charas, three pistols, including one sophisticated Glock pistol, along with 62 live cartridges and two empty shells, Rs 48.7 lakh drug money, 262 gm gold and electronic devices from their possession.
The police also found a hidden closet at the house of accused Lovepreet, where he used to conceal all smuggled narcotics and hawala money, he added. The DGP said the suspects were operating the drug network in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. A probe revealed that after smuggling drugs from across the border, they used to send money to Pakistan-based smugglers via hawala, he added.
He said the investigation was carried out in an advanced manner, utilising technical surveillance and human intelligence, reflecting the ANTF’s strategic approach in tackling complex criminal networks. Further investigation was on to establish backward and forward linkages and more arrests were also likely in the case, he added.
Sharing more details, Special DGP ANTF Kuldeep Singh said the preliminary investigation revealed that Lovepreet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was the key person managing the entire drug network of the syndicate.
