Punjab's Commissionerate Police have busted a Narco-Hawala cartel

In a major breakthrough amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a drug-free state as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Commissionerate Police Amritsar has dismantled a well-organized Narco-Hawala cartel being operated by Arshdeep Singh, currently incarcerated at Goindwal Jail, with the arrest of its six operatives and recovering 4.526 kg of heroin and ₹8.7 lakh drug money from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday.

Those arrested have been identified as Karandeep Singh alias Karan (25), a resident of Algon Khurd in Tarn Taran, Jaspreet Singh (20), a resident of Salodi in Ludhiana, Arshdeep Singh alias Ars (22), a resident of Mehndipur in Tarn Taran, Gurmeet Singh alias Geetu (24), a resident of Sukhera Bodla in Fazilka, Rajinderpal Singh alias Nikka (24), a resident of Kolowal in Amritsar and Malkeet Singh (28), a resident of Hawelian in Tarn Taran.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that preliminary investigation has revealed that Arshdeep, in connivance with his associates Jaspreet and Karan, has been orchestrating the drug trade and hawala transactions. Karan, along with Gurmeet and Rajinderpal, were retrieving cross-border consignments and distributing them across various districts of Punjab, he said.

He said that the probe has further revealed that the proceeds from the narcotics trade were laundered via hawala channels by Jaspreet, which were routed to Dubai, UAE and subsequently to Pakistan. The mobile phone used by Arshdeep within the jail has been recovered, providing crucial evidence of their cross-border operations, he said.

The DGP said that said that further investigations are ongoing to establish backward and forward linkages in this case.

Sharing more details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that Arshdeep Singh has been lodged in the jail in a commercial NDPS case. Despite incarceration, he maintained contact with cross-border smugglers, he said.

He said that one of the arrested accused identified as Malkeet Singh, who has been arrested separately, is a notorious smuggler and had spent a year in Dubai, where he established links with Pakistani smugglers. Given his village's proximity to the international border, the accused has facilitated the smuggling of consignments directly to his residence upon his return to India two months ago, he added.

The CP said that Police teams led by DCP Ravinderpal Singh and ADCP Jagbinder Singh executed the operation based on intelligence inputs. Apart from recovering heroin and drug money, police teams have also impounded their Hero Splendor motorcycle, which they were using to deliver the consignments, he said.

Further investigations are underway to unravel the network’s domestic and international linkages. More arrests and recoveries expected in coming days, he added.

In this regard, two separate case FIRs have been registered under relevant sections of the NDPS Act.