Punjab Police smash inter-state drug cartel spanning over 50 districts; arrest 20 persons

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24

In one of the biggest crackdowns on the supply of pharmaceutical opioids across the country, the Punjab Police has busted an inter-state drug cartel operating in more than 50 districts spread across 11 states of the country, using the hawala channel route, a press release by the state government stated.

As many as 20 persons have already been arrested with a huge cache of drugs, drug proceeds-money and five vehicles, in an operation that spanned over eight weeks.

Disclosing the details of the case and the investigations, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said the drug cartel, known as ‘Agra Gang’, was pushing pharmaceutical opioids (drugs) into the markets all across India by diverting drugs in huge quantities from drug manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers and retail chemists spread out across the country.

Of the 20 people arrested so far, 16 are from Punjab, two from UP and one each from Haryana and Delhi.

With the arrest of these gang members, a well-oiled network of drug syndicate pushing consignments to the tune of 10 to 12 crores of intoxicating pharmaceutical opioids in the form of tablets/capsules/injections/syrups per month into Punjab and other parts of the country has been totally smashed thousands of youth who were or could have got hooked to these drugs have been saved from drug abuse and addiction, the press release further read.

The gang was busted by a Barnala police team, comprising IPS Dr Pragya Jain, ASP Mehal Kalan, SP(D) Sukhdev Virk, DSP (D), Ramninder Deol, CIA in-charge Inspector Baljit Singh, working under the supervision of SSP Barnala Sandeep Goel.

The arrests of the 20 men, including one of the cartel’s kingpins, were made from various locations in Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. As many as 27,62,137 intoxicating tablets, capsules, injections and syrup bottles were seized from them, along with drug proceeds money of Rs 70,03,800, said Gupta.

Interestingly, the Barnala police, in March 2020, had similarly busted a ‘Mathura Gang’ and seized 44 lakh intoxicants and Rs 1.5 crore drug money/proceeds in the biggest ever such haul by the Punjab police, the press release read.

The case began to unravel in May with the arrest of Balwinder Singh, alias Nikka, and four others, along with 2,85,000 intoxicating tablets during an investigation under Sections 21, 22, 25, 29, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act. This further led to the arrest of Julfikar Ali with 12,000 intoxicating tablets. Julfikar’s questioning revealed the role of Harish as one of the masterminds in the influx and supply of pharmaceutical opioids into Punjab.

Following these arrests, the Barnala police spent over two months developing the available leads, laying out elaborate surveillance plans and a trap was then laid out, with a special team being sent to West Bengal from where Harish was nabbed. It was Harish who disclosed the modus operandi of the gang and its chain of supply of psychotropic drugs not only in Punjab but also in over 11 states of the country.

Subsequent raids in UP, Haryana Delhi, Punjab led to arrest of other gang members, along with the seizure of a large quantity of pharmaceutical opioids, the drug proceeds-money and vehicles.

The DGP said investigations into the gang’s modus operandi so far had revealed that Harish posed as a Medical Representative to establish contact with chemists and pharmacists by using information such as address and phone number, which he easily found over the internet and social media.

“The contraband smugglers used a pre-identified network of couriers/transport/goods carriers, operating from major cities namely Delhi, Agra, Amritsar, Jaipur, Gwalior and Bhopal, and delivered consignments to various locations in several states with the help of fake/ undervalued bills using local transporters. Payment and transfer of money were done using the hawala channels, and also through multiple cash transactions into a bank account specially created for this purpose,” the DGP added.

The intoxicants seized are mostly pharmaceutical opioids. Many of these pharmaceutical products have legitimate and important medical use; however, these products cannot be sold without a valid medical prescription from a registered medical practitioner. The gang was diverting these intoxicants, which are medically used for pain relief and treatment for opioid dependence, for extra-medical use, which can lead to major drug overdose issues and even deaths.

The DGP said the operation carried out by Punjab Police and the huge recovery of pharmaceutical opioids was highly significant and was a major hit to the supply of drugs in Punjab, as according to ‘Magnitude of Substance Use in India-2019’, a study commissioned by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, New Delhi, pharmaceutical opioids (which itself includes a variety of medications of the opioid group) are the second most commonly used opioids in India (0.96 per cent), after heroin, which is the most commonly used opioid in India (1.14 per cent).

It is estimated that the harmful use/dependent use of pharmaceutical opioids constitutes about 40 per cent of the drug problem in the state.