As Punjab continues its battle against the drug menace, the State’s Special Task Force chief has claimed that Delhi has become a major centre from where foreign nationals supply drugs.
STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu said on Thursday that as many as 180 foreigners had been arrested in connection with 147 cases over the past three years.
“Sixty-one foreign nationals were arrested in 2017, 81 in 2018 and 37 in 2019. There has been one arrest this year. Most of these arrested persons had come via Delhi, indicating that it has become a major centre from where foreign nationals supply drugs to Punjab,” he told The Hindu.
Enhanced vigil along the India-Pakistan border and effective policing has forced smugglers to explore new sea, air and land routes, often under the garb of legal trade and commerce.
Supply ring busted
The recovery in January 2020 of 197 kg of heroin with 64 kg of other intoxicants and an illicit laboratory with six drums of chemicals by the STF from a house in Akash Vihar in Amritsar led to the busting of an international heroin supply ring.
“It revealed new efforts by drug traffickers to smuggle heroin into Punjab through the sea route from Gujarat,” said Mr. Sidhu.
