Punjab Police has busted an international drug racket and arrested four people, who were using the courier services route to smuggle drugs abroad. The international module of drug smugglers was reportedly being controlled from Canada.

Police also said these arrests have exposed a module that was involved in smuggling opium and the potent date-rape drug ketamine.

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The arrested persons have been identified as Canadian national Davinder Nirwal alias Dev (68), Ajit Singh alias Jeet (45), Tarlochan Singh (42) of village Jaitewali in Jalandhar and Gurbax Singh (50) of village Katthe in Hoshiarpur.

Additional Inspector General Counter Intelligence HKPS Khakh, who had been chasing the Canadian, Davinder Dev, said the racket was found to be masterminded by Canadian citizens, Kamaljit Singh Chauhan, who hails from village Nagar in Jalandhar, and Dev, who is a resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, and currently residing at Khanna in Ludhiana.

Dev, a big name in the drug smuggling world, had been under close watch of the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), said Khakh, who strategised the joint operation undertaken by the Counter Intelligence Wing and District Police Jalandhar Rural.

The police have seized 4.75 kilograms of ketamine and six kilograms of opium, neatly packed in double layered seven big cooking bowls (cauldron), used for preparations of Langar (community kitchen) material.

Giving details of the arrests, Khakh said that the joint teams, acting on a tip-off, carried out a special operation on Haripur T-Point near Jandu Singha in Jalandhar and arrested the four persons traveling in two different cars.

He added that accused were were carrying seven big cooking bowls, with the drugs hidden in specially made seven big cauldrons for Canada, through a courier company.

The use of private couriers or postal services is a new modus operandi used by global drug smugglers to avoid police and other agencies, he added.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the consignment was prepared by Kamaljit Chohan, who visited India in 2017 and fixed a deal with the accused for smuggling of ketamine and opium to Canada.

As per the agreement, Dev and Jeet were to arrange drugs from their Indian sources and pack them properly while Chohan had taken the responsibility to further take the drugs to Canada through courier route which was known only to him.