Chandigarh: The Punjab police on Monday claimed to have arrested 11 persons including five drug smugglers, three drug hawala money couriers and three hawala traders, and recovered drug money in different foreign currencies amounting to Rs 5.09 crores with the support of Central agencies.
Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, said that arrested drug smugglers have been identified as Harjinder Singh, Harmanjit Singh, Sagar, 28, and Harbhaj Singh, all residents of Amritsar and Lavdeep Singh, of Batala, while, drug hawala money couriers have been identified as Saurav Mahajan, Tanush and Harminder Singh, all residents of Amritsar.
The arrested Hawala traders have been identified as Ashok Kumar Sharma, Rajesh Kumar and Amit Bansal, all residents of Phagwara.
Investigations into this case revealed the role of an inmate lodged in Central Jail Amritsar identified as Harbhaj Singh who emerged as the mastermind of this racket and was found to be in contact with Pakistani drug smuggler Shahbaz from inside the jail.
Meanwhile, sharing outcomes of the special drive against drugs launched on March 1, last, the DGP said that Punjab police has so far arrested of 3,868 drug smugglers across the state and recovered 135.5 kg heroin, 82.9 kg opium, 1,419 kg poppy husk, 34.24 kg Ganja, 7.58 lakh intoxicant tablets/pills/injections, 1 kg ICE and Rs 5.42 crores drug money from the possession of arrested drug smugglers.
