Punjab Police seize 20 kg heroin worth Rs 100 cr

Chandigarh, Aug 31 (IANS) Busting a big drug syndicate operated by notorious gangsters lodged in jails, the Punjab Police have seized 20 kg heroin worth Rs 100 crore with the arrest of two drug dealers.

The two drug suppliers have been identified as Balwinder Singh of Sarangwal Hoshiarpur village and Peter Masih of Basti Danishmanda locality in Jalandhar. Peter already faces two criminal cases.

Director General of Police (DGP), Dinkar Gupta, said that when police teams intercepted a truck and a Hyundai i20 car at the high-tech Dhilwan police post in Kapurthala on Monday, the search of the vehicle led to the recovery of 20 kg heroin.

He added that the drivers of the vehicles were signalled to stop, but the occupants tried to flee. However, the cops managed to nab them after a brief chase.

The police recovered 20 packets of heroin (one kg each) from their personal possession during their body check and from the two vehicles, the DGP said.

H.S. Khakh, SSP, Kapurthala, said that two special cavities had been created in the roof of driver's cabin of the truck by the drug suppliers to conceal the consignments during transportation.

The DGP added that during preliminary investigation, the drug dealers disclosed that a heroin consignment was being smuggled from Purmara Mandi in Srinagar by Balwinder Singh in a truck which was collected by Peter.

He said a narco-gangster angle is being suspected in the case as the investigations carried out so far have indicated that Peter had been sent to collect the consignment by Gaggandeep, the brother of notorious gangster Rajnish Kumar, alias Preet Phagwara.