In a major blow to the trans-border smuggling amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Police has busted Pak-backed drug smuggling racket with the arrest of two persons and recovered 7kg heroin and five pistols— including four 9MM Glock pistols and one .32 bore pistol— from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Wednesday.

Those arrested have been identified as Gurmukh Singh, a resident of Bhura Kona in Tarn Taran and Jagwant Singh of Mehdipur in Tarn Taran. Apart from recovering heroin and weapons, police teams have also recovered five live cartridges and five magazines from their possession, besides, impounding their Swift Dzire car (PB 38 D 1759).

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on secret information about two smugglers on their Swift Dzire car are going to deliver a weapon consignment, Police teams from Amritsar Rural conducted a special Naka near village Muhawa in the area of Gharinda and arrested the accused persons after recovering five pistols and ammunition from their possession.

He said that during questioning, the arrested accused persons disclosed that along with weapons they had also retrieved heroin, which they kept concealed near their house. Following their disclosure, Police teams conducted a raid at a location pinpointed by the accused persons and recovered 7Kg heroin.

The DGP said that as per preliminary investigations, both the arrested accused persons were directly in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers and were supplying consignments of weapons and drugs across the state after smuggling from Pakistan via Drones.

Sharing more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Satinder Singh said that investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages in this case and identify the Pakistan based smuggler and persons to whom the arrested persons were to deliver the weapon consignment. The Police teams will also initiate the procedure to forfeit the illegally acquired property of the arrested smugglers under section 68F of the NDPS Act, he added.

In this regard, a case FIR no. 170 dated 16/7/2024 has been registered under section 25 of the Arms Act and sections 21, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Gharinda in Amritsar Rural.