Soldier, 2 others send drones to Pakistan to fetch drugs, arrested

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

The state police have claimed that a narco-terror module flew drones from Amritsar to Pakistan to fetch drugs in the last few days. Three persons, including an Indian Army soldier and an expert drone operator, have been arrested.

They have been identified as Dharminder Singh of Dhanoa Khurd village (Amritsar), Balkar Singh of Kalas village (Amritsar), and Rahul Chauhan of Pooja Vihar in Ambala (Haryana).

The gang carried out multiple sorties before it was busted by the state police, said DGP Dinkar Gupta at a press conference on Friday. He said the operation was carried out exclusively by the state police.

The DGP said they had seized two highly sophisticated Chinese drones, belonging to the narco-terror module, involved in the smuggling of weapons and narcotics from across the border.

“The seizure includes drone batteries, custom-made drone containers, two walkie-talkie sets, Rs 6.22 lakh, believed to be proceeds of drugs, and a magazine of an INSAS rifle. The drones, capable of travelling 2-3 km, were reportedly being launched from the Indian side to fly into Pakistan to pick up narcotics. The accused had apparently already conducted four-five sorties,” said Gupta.

The DGP, accompanied by ADGP (Internal Security) RN Dhoke, IG Border Range SPS Parmar and SSP Tarn Taran Dhruv Dhaiya, said this was the first instance to show that drones were being used to smuggle narcotics, even though no drugs had been recovered.

He said the module members had revealed that they were involved in the cross-border smuggling of drugs and weapons using drones over the past few months. Certain Pakistan-based drug smugglers had also come to notice, he added.

While Dharminder was arrested from Hardo Rattan village, about 3 km from the Indo-Pak border, Balkar, lodged in Amritsar jail in an NDPS case, was brought on production warrant yesterday. Rahul, a naik in the Army, was reportedly involved in procuring and supplying drones and training to cross-border smugglers. Two members of the narco-terror module were still absconding and efforts were on to nab him, said the DGP.