Furtherintensifying the war to eradicate drugs menace from the state, the PunjabPolice under its special drive launched against the drug menace have arrested392 persons after registering 283 FIRs under the NDPS act across the state. Theweek-long drive commenced on February 25, 2021.
DirectorGeneral of Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta, while divulging the details, saidthat under this drive the police have recovered heroin as well as other drugsafter carrying out cordon and search operations in drug affected areas besidelaying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. The police have alsoarrested 15 Proclaimed Offenders (POs) of NDPS cases during these three days.
Hesaid that as part of the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led PunjabGovernment’s zero tolerance policy against the drugs, the Punjab Police iscommitted to eradicate the drug menace from the state. He said that extensiveanti-drug drives are being initiated from time to time to combat the menace ofdrugs in Punjab.
“ThePunjab Police had set a new record by seizing over 700 kgs heroin worth ₹3500crores in the international market and confiscating property worth ₹101 croresafter arresting over 10k drug smugglers in year 2020 amid the COVID-19pandemic,” said the DGP.
Hesaid that the massive crackdown on drugs not only led to break the supply chainof drugs but also resulted in decline in drug related deaths as only 19 drugrelated deaths were reported in year 2020 in comparison to the years 2019 and2018, which had witnessed 47 and 111 drug related deaths respectively.
Underthe current anti-drug drive, The Tarn Taran Police carried out a mammothexercise based on technical collection, data crunching and human intelligenceto identify areas notorious for drug smuggling and recovered 1.39 kg heroin anda large number of intoxicant tablets in just 3 days. Interestingly, one of thearrested drug suppliers of Tarn Taran used to barter drugs with motorcycle ormobile phones, mostly stolen/snatched.
Similarly,the Amritsar Rural Police have recovered drug money worth Rs 89 lakhs besidesimpounding one pistol and 25 cartridges while the Jalandhar CommissioneratePolice have recovered 6.23Kg Opium, 4.50 quintal poppy husk, 237grams heroinand 4.7Kg Ganja.
Meanwhile,the data from April 01, 2017 till date reveals that the Punjab Police haverecovered 1760 kg heroin, 25 kg smack and 1794 kg opium from the drug smugglersand suppliers besides seizure/attachment of property worth ₹163 crores. OnJanuary 31, 2020, the Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police had seized 197kg heroin and other contraband from the illegal drug factory set-up in a rentedhouse at village Sultanwind of Amritsar and arrested six persons, including anAfghanistan national and a woman.
