Seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra have emerged new routes to smuggle drugs into India, the Punjab Police said on Monday.

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill said that in the last two months, the Punjab Police have recovered 185.5 kilogram (kg) heroin smuggled via seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

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These consignments were supposed to be delivered in Punjab, the IGP said while addressing a press conference here, adding that in the latest haul, SBS Nagar Police on Sunday recovered 38 kg heroin that had apparently entered India’s borders via the sea route of Gujarat, from a truck coming from Bhuj in Gujarat.

Two persons have been arrested. This recovery is in addition to the 13.51 kg heroin recovered in the state last week, taking the weekly cumulative quantity of heroin recovered to 51.51 kg, the IGP said.

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

On drug recovery, the IGP said that the Punjab Police have arrested 370 drug smugglers after registering 283 first information reports (FIRs) including 33 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act across the state in the last one week.

He said that with Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann having given the Punjab Police a free hand and full liberty to wage a 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 1.09 crore of drug money, 13 kg opium, 12 kg ganja, seven quintals of poppy husk, and 1.36 lakh intoxicant pills, capsules, injections and vials among other drugs after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state.

Gill said that with 17 more proclaimed offenders (absconders) in NDPS Act cases arrested this week, the total number of arrests reached 247 since the special drive to arrest such absconders was started on July 5.