CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police busted a cross-border drug and weapon smuggling cartel arresting 12 people, of which five have been arrested from Jammu and Kashmir with the help of J&K Police.
Director General of Police, Punjab Gaurav Yadav said on Friday the arrested people included kingpin identified as Manjeet Singh alias Bhola of village Jhanjoti in Ajnala. The other 11 arrested persons have been identified as Aniket Verma of Cheharta, Jobanpreet Singh alias Joban of Cheharta, Babli of Naraingarh in Cheharta, Harpreet Singh alias Happy of Guru Ki Wadali, Amritpal Singh Alias Ansh of Naraingarh in Cheharta, Reshma of Kartar Nagar in Cheharta, Harshpreet Singh alias Harman alias Hamma of village Thanda in Amritsar, Mandeep Singh alias Kaushal alias Joshi of village Fatehpur of Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi of village Fatehpur, Lovepreet Singh alias Jashan of village Fatehpur and Akashdeep Singh alias Arsh of Cheharta.
The police has recovered 2.19 kg heroin, three sophisticated pistols including two automatic and Rs 2.60 lakh drug money from their possession and their Toyota Fortuner car.
Yadav said that accused Manjeet alias Bhola was in direct contact with Pakistan-based smugglers and was receiving consignments of drugs and weapons from across the border. The probe revealed that consignments were being dropped at Ramdas and Ajnala border sectors with the help of drones. The DGP said that further investigations are on to establish forward and backward linkages in this case.
Sharing more details, Commissioner of Police, Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that following a reliable input that accused Aniket has been into the drug smuggling business, police teams successfully apprehended him. Aniket's arrest has unearthed the entire network and led to the arrest of kingpin Manjeet alias Bhola and his all accomplices from different locations.
The CP further said that five of the accused persons have been arrested from Jammu and Kashmir with the help of J&K Police. He said that investigations have also revealed that accused Manjeet was using the house of the arrested woman accused Babli, an Anganwari worker, to store the consignments and was using his accomplices to distribute further.
Further investigations are ongoing to uncover the entire network and more arrests and recoveries are likely in coming days. In this regard, a case has been registered under sections 21(B), (C)/27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Chheharta in Amritsar.