Heroin worth Rs180 cr seized
Fazilka, April 12
A day before the visit of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to Fazilka district, the police on Wednesday claimed to have seized over 36 kg of heroin from four persons. The consignment, smuggled from Pakistan, was to be transported to Amritsar.
The price of the heroin is estimated to be over Rs 180 crore in international market.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ranjit Singh Dhillon and SSP Avneet Kaur Sidhu said after getting a tip-off, the police intercepted two cars at the Lalowali drain bridge near here and rounded up four youths. They have been identified as Manpreet Singh, Jaspal Singh, alias Gopi, Sukhdev Singh and Dyalinder Singh, all residents of Tarn Taran district.
The DIG said the police recovered 23 packets of heroin concealed in the car doors and under the seats. The packets weighed 24.295 kg. The police have also confiscated the cars — Hyundai Elantra and Honda City — used for smuggling the consignment from Rajasthan.
Dhillon said during the interrogation, the peddlers allegedly disclosed information about 12 packets of heroin, weighing about 12.620 kg, hidden at another place.
These packets were also seized. With this, the total recovery came to 36.915 kg, the DIG said.
When asked, the DIG said the consignment was brought from near the Indo-Pak border about 100 km away from neighbouring Sriganganagar. He said during the preliminary investigation, it came to notice that the heroin was dropped by a drone from Pakistan in Rajasthan recently.
He said the consignment was to be taken to Amritsar through Fazilka route, but it was intercepted by the police. Sources said the police have recovered a record 143 kg heroin in the last year in Fazilka district.
