While a team of the Punjab police on Saturday claimed to have foiled a major drug smuggling bid with the arrest of a smuggler after recovering 15 kg heroin from his wheat straw-laden tractor-trolley in Fazilka area, it's another team recovered an additional chunk of 12 kg heroin from two locations in Ferozepur area pinpointed by the a notorious smuggler who was nabbed two days ago.
Elaborating on the Fazilka case, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that the accused had been identified as Pritam Singh of village Mohar Jamsher in Fazilka and that police had also impounded his tractor and trolley.
Notably, this is the fifth major heroin recovery made by the Fazilka cops in the last 45 days, taking the total recovery to 145 kg.
Accused was travelling with wife, son-in-law at time of arrest
DGP Yadav said that following intel-inputs, the SSOC Fazilka had launched a special secret operation against trans-border narcotic smuggling networks in the area leading to the arrest of Pritam. He said that the accused was travelling along with his wife identified as Kushalya Bai and son-in-law identified as Gurmeet Singh of village Dhani Kharas Wali in Fazilka, who managed to escape from the spot.
Not ruling out the possibility of the consignment being smuggled via riverine route, the DGP said that accused family was among the few households of border village Mohar Jamsher, who insisted on staying put at their flood-ravaged premises despite repeated requests by the district administration and police authorities to move to the safer places.
It may be recalled that on July 23, last, 20 kg heroin was recovered from a Granthi identified as Nishan Singh of Jora Singh Nagar, Ferozepur, while on August 6, two separate cross-border drug smuggling rackets were busted with the arrest of four drug traffickers after recovering 77.8 kg heroin and three pistols from their possession. Likewise, while on August 16, 3 kg heroin recovered from Ferozepur, two Pakistani nationals were arrested with 29.2 kg heroin in Ferozepur on August 21, last.
27 kgs of heroin recovered in 48 hours
Meanwhile, DGP Yadav said that an additional chunk of 12 kg heroin was recovered on Saturday from the two locations (6kg each) in Ferozepur pinpointed by the accused Malkiat Singh alias Kali, who was nabbed two days ago by Jalandhar rural police with 9 kg of heroin, taking the total heroin recovery to 27 kg in just 48 hours.
This recovery is yet another tranche of the 50 kg heroin consignment, which was fetched by three swimmers from Pakistan on the directions of drug smuggler Malkiat Kali. Police teams have effectively recovered 43.5 kg heroin after arresting at least five drug smugglers including one swimmer identified as Joga Singh.
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