LUDHIANA: Passion for partying after minting money in drug deals proved costly for a group of smugglers who were arrested by a team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in a late night raid at Neechi Mangli area in Ludhiana on Wednesday.
The DRI team was waiting for the right opportunity to strike and nabbed six smugglers with 428kg ganja (weed), which is said to be one of the biggest seizures in Ludhiana.
The approximate value of the seized contraband, concealed inside sacks of salt, is said to be in crores. All the accused were produced in a local court after their medical check-up. They have been remanded in judicial custody till September 23.
The raid team comprised about 25 officials and staff of the Ludhiana-based zonal office of DRI.
Highly-placed sources in the department said the arrested smugglers are among the biggest fish in the business of ganja in Punjab and smuggle the contraband from other states in sacks of salt and then sell it in small quantities to drug dealers witj network in all cities, particularly Ludhiana. They had even made a godown at a secret location in Neechi Mangli area of Ludhiana to store the ganja-laden salt sacks.
Sources said the accused had been on the radar from quite some time after the agency got a whiff about this illegal trade in Ludhiana. During investigation, the officials zeroed in on these six accused. In the past few days, only four of the accused were present in the city. As two were not in town, the DRI waited for them to return so that all could be nabbed together. When the agency’s officials came to know that they were going to party on Wednesday night, they swooped in and arrested them all.
