37-kg heroin seized in Fazilka, four arrested

Fazilka police held four persons with 37 kg of heroin on Wednesday. Contraband was dropped from across the border using a drone, officials said.

“Following reliable inputs about the influx of large quantity of heroin from Rajasthan to Punjab, police teams from Fazilka district carried out the operation at Fazilka-Ferozepur road, near canal bridge in the area of village Lalo Wali. Four persons were found sitting in their cars waiting for someone. Seeing the police party, the accused tried to flee, but, were overpowered,” said Gaurav Yadav, director general of police (DGP).

“Those arrested have been identified as Manpreet Singh, Jaspal Singh alias Gopi, Sukhdev Singh and Dyalvinder Singh, all residents of Tarn Taran district. The Police have also recovered two sedan cars including a white Hyundai Elantra (PB-02-DP-0717) and a silver Honda Civic (PB-63-D-2370), which were used to smuggle drug consignment from Rajasthan,” added Ranjit Singh Dhillon, deputy inspector general of police, Ferozepur.

“During checking, police teams recovered 23 packets of heroin, weighing 24.295kg, kept concealed inside cardboard enclosure of car windows while another chunk of 12 packets of heroin, weighing 12.620kg, was recovered from pinpointed location disclosed by the arrested drug smugglers,” said DIG.

“As per preliminary investigations, the accused persons were coming from Rajasthan after retrieving the heroin consignment dropped from across the border using a drone,” the DIG added.

Meanwhile, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, senior superintendent of police, Fazilka, said that further investigations are on to find out more people involved in this module and also the Punjab-based receiver of the consignment. “More arrests are expected in the coming days,” She said.

A case has been registered under Sections 21(C), 23, and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Sadar in Fazilka.