Mar 31, 2025 04:27 PM IST
Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said the drug consignment recovered from the accused Harshpreet Singh of Roranwala in Amritsar was dropped using drones from Pakistan.
A drug smuggler linked to Pakistan and US-based drug syndicates was arrested with 15kg of heroin in Tarn Taran district on Monday.
Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said the drug consignment recovered from the accused Harshpreet Singh of Roranwala in Amritsar was dropped using drones from Pakistan.
The director general of police said preliminary investigation showed that the consignment is linked to a network operated by US-based smuggler Gurnam Kallowal, who is in touch with a Pakistan-based smuggler, Pahalwan. The Pakistan peddler was using drones to drop the drug consignment from across the border. Harshpreet was retrieving the narcotics in the border area to further deliver it to local drug peddlers and was sending payments of drug proceeds through hawala channels on the instructions of his US-based handler.
The police have impounded a white Activa scooter (PB 02 CJ 4165) that Harshpreet was using for ferrying the contraband.
The arrest comes a day after Tarn Taran police dismantled a drug-trafficking cartel with the arrest of two smugglers and recovered 6kg heroin from them.
The DGP said investigation is underway to establish backward and forward linkages in this case to uncover the whole network.
Tarn Taran senior superintendent of police (SSP) Abhimanyu Rana said that following reliable inputs about the smuggling activities of the accused, police teams of the crime investigation agency (CIA), under the supervision of SP, investigation, Ajay Raj, Goindwal Sahib DSP Atul Soni and DSP, special crime, Gurinder Pal Nagra launched an operation and arrested the accused from Rakh Sarai Amanat Khan when he was going to deliver the drug consignment on his scooter.
The SSP said more arrests and recoveries are likely in the coming days.
A case was registered under the NDPS Act at the Sadar police station in Tarn Taran.
