Amritsar police bust narco-arms module with links to Pakistan, Malaysia

The Amritsar police on Friday claimed to have busted an inter-state narco-hawala syndicate and an international narco-arms module having links to Malaysia and Pakistan with the arrest of nine people.

The police seized 1.15 kg of heroin, five sophisticated pistols and Rs 9.7 lakh in drug money from them.

Those arrested have been identified as Jaspreet Singh Chauhan (26), Harpreet Singh (25), Tejbir Singh (21), Danish (19), Saloni (19), Jobanpreet Singh (28), Kulwinder Singh (28) and Abdul Rehman (45) and Pardeep Pintu (44). While Rehman and Pintu are residents of Karnataka, the other seven are from Punjab.

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said two separate first information reports (FIRs) had been registered at the Sadar and Islamabad police stations in Amritsar.

Sharing details of the first operation, Amritsar Commissioner of Police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said police teams arrested three individuals – Jaspreet, Harpreet and Tejbir – involved in the narco-arms module and seized five sophisticated pistols, including three 9 mm Glocks, along with cartridges, from their possession.

He said a preliminary investigation had revealed that two of the accused, Jaspreet and Harpreet, had recently returned from Malaysia and were in touch with their handlers in Malaysia and Pakistan.

They came to Amritsar along with their friend Tejbir and on the instructions of their handlers, picked up a consignment of weapons and drugs, he said, adding that the arms were to be delivered to criminals.

In this regard, a case has been registered under Section 21C of the NDPS Act and Section 25 of the Arms Act at the Sadar police station.

In another operation, the CP said police teams arrested six accused involved in a narco-hawala network with links to Delhi, Karnataka and Dubai, and seized Rs 9.7 lakh in drug money and 150 gm heroin from their possession.

He said the arrested accused were part of an organised hawala syndicate being operated by Abdul Rehman and Pardeep Pintu, who routed drug proceeds to Dubai through illegal channels. Investigation was on and more arrests were likely in coming days, he added.

A case under Sections 21-B, 29 and 27-A of the NDPS Act has been registered at the Islamabad police station.

Amritsar