To avoid arrest, drug smugglers in Punjab have adopted a new modus operandi. They are selling small quantities of narcotics ‘on foot’ and concealing the drugs in ponds and fields to avoid recovery during raids. This was disclosed by Inspector General of Police (IGP) headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill said on Monday.  

Sukhchain Singh further said that the drug smugglers prefer to sell their products in small quantities to ensure that even if they are caught, their case should not be considered as commercial.

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He said as per the disclosures of the arrested drug smugglers, the supply of drugs is either from the area of villages Shanni-Beli in Himachal Pradesh, adjoining Pathankot or from neighboring Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab’s border district police officers have been informed about it and asked to work in close coordination with neighboring state police.

The IGP said another modus operandi was also noticed in Malerkotla where a drug smuggler identified as Rohit Sahi alias Goldy of Amargarh disguised himself as Army man by wearing Army fatigue to sell heroin. The police had recovered 50 gram heroin from his car, he said.

The IGP said the Punjab Police have arrested 565 drug smugglers after registering 453 first information reports (FIRs), including 34 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last one week.

Gill said the police in two inter-state operations conducted last week has managed to effectively recover 147.5 kilogram heroin from states including Gujarat and Maharashtra. These two recoveries are in addition to the 7.89 kilogram heroin recovered in the state last week, taking the commutative quantity of heroin to 155.39 kilogram. 

In a joint operation with Anti Terrorist Squad Gujarat on July 12, Punjab Police recovered 75 kg heroin from a container at Mundra Port in Gujarat, while, in a similar operation with Maharashtra Police on 15 July, 72.5 kg heroin was recovered from a container at the Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai.

He said with Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann having given the Punjab Police a free hand and full liberty to wage war against drugs, extensive anti-drug drives have been launched to combat the menace of drugs from the border State of Punjab.

Apart from recovering a big-haul of heroin, the Police have also recovered Rs 16.29 lakhs of drug money, 15 kg opium, 37 kg ganja, 16 quintals of poppy husk, and 64000 intoxicant pills among other drugs after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. As many as 10 Proclaimed offenders and absconders in NDPS cases have also been arrested in the past week, he added.